
Glass _Jc:3ii3 

Book___A 



/- 



THE LIFE 






COMMODORE OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 



ALEX. SLIDELL MACKENZIE, U.S.N. 



IN TWO VOLUMES. 

VOL. L 



N EW-Y ORK: 
IIAKPRR & BROTHERS, 82 CLIFF-STREET. 

18 43. 



L.353 






^f^iitpi-pii, acf-'jnliiig to Act of Congress, in the year 1840, bv 

liAKPEK & Brothers, 

In the L'li^-iv"s UlRce of the Southern District of INew-York. 



Pj T^»..nnf<»t 



JU^ ^ 



L 



PREFACE. 



The following work was undertaken at the re- 
quest of Doctor Grant Champlin Perry, the eldest 
son of Commodore Perry, who, perceiving in the 
Naval History of Mr. J. F. Cooper an attempt to 
diminish that admiration with which the people of 
the United States have been accustomed to regard 
the memory of Perry, with a view of raising the 
standing of his second in command in the battle 
on Lake Erie, was desirous that a full account 
should be published of his father's life and services. 
This request having been willingly assented to, he 
accordingly forwarded to the writer the papers of 
his father, consisting almost entirely of public cor- 
respondence and log-books of various cruises, of 
which, however, the series was incomplete, and a 
vast mass of documents relating to the battle of 
Lake Erie, the whole forming rather materials for 
writing the history of that event than the life of 
Commodore Perry. The writer has had no ac- 
cess, either directly or through extracts, to Perry's 
corraspondence with his immediate family, which 



IT P E E F A C E. 

would have afforded not only great assistance m 
carrying on the thread of the narrative, but also a 
better insight than could be otherwise obtained 
into his thoughts, his feelings, and affections. 
While reverencing the motive which led to this 
sacred treasuring from the public eye of all that 
remains of such a husband and father, he cannot 
but regret, as his biographer, the want of access to 
such valuable sources of information. 

Compelled to seek materials when he had be- 
lieved that his only task would be to make use of 
those which, through a long series of years, had 
been collected, the writer addressed himself forth- 
with to the living friends and companions of Com- 
modore Perry, and to others who could lend him 
assistance in his undertaking. He has been kind- 
ly and generously aided by most of those to whom 
he applied. To the sister of Commodore Perry, 
nearest his own age, he is indebted for materials 
used in detailing the incidents of his early life, 
and her own words have occasionally been incor- 
porated in the narrative. To Lieutenant A. A. 
Harwood, of the Navy, a resident of the neigh- 
bourhood in which Commodore Perry was born, 
he is under great obligations for anecdotes of the 
commodore's early life, obtained among the com- 
panions of his youth, and for a description of the 
family homestead. From Commander Stephen 
Champlin and Mr. Thomas Brownell he has re- 



PREFACE. ▼ 

ceived personal explanations on various minor 
points relating to the Lake Erie squadron, con-- 
cerning which the printed and written document;^Jf 
were obscure or silent. To Doctor Usher Par- 
sons, of Providence, the only medical officer in the 
Lake Erie squadron who was able to peform duty 
during and immediately after the battle, and who 
was subsequently surgeon of the Java when under 
Perry's command, the writer has to acknowledge 
himself under great obligations for a variety of 
facts communicated in a series of interesting notes, 
and just and intelligent opinions with regard to 
the character, manners, and acquirements of Perry. 
He has also to acknowledge the valuable commu- 
nication he has received from the Honourable 
John Chambers, of Kentucky, an aiddecamp of 
General Harrison during the campaign of 1813, 
containing several interesting anecdotes of Perry, 
which, with little change of the language in wliich 
they were communicated, will be found incorpo- 
rated in the narrative. In addition to the various 
facts illustrative of the battle of Lake Erie, and 
of Captain Elliott's course towards Commodore 
Perry, subsequent to his succeeding him in the 
command, obtained from the highly intelligent and 
interesting letters of Samuel Hambleton, Esq., pur- 
ser of the Lawrence, to Commodore Perry, Mr. 
Hambleton has kindly placed at the writer's dis- 
posal all the letters of Commodore Perry to him- 
A 



VI PREFACE. 

self, during a long period of friendly correspond- 
ence ; and has, moreover, obligingly favoured him 
with extracts from his journal when on Lake Erie, 
and readily answered the various questions ad- 
dressed to him. From his intelligent friend, C. 
O. Handy, Esq., secretary of Commodore Perry 
when on board the Java, and subsequently purser 
of the John Adams on his last cruise, the writer 
has received the heartiest assistance and valua- 
ble critical aid in the prosecution of his underta- 
king. 

The writer has made occasional use of the val- 
uable life of Perry published in 1821, by the Hon- 
ourable John M. Niles ; also of the masterly and 
beautiful sketch on the same subject, from the pen 
of Mr. Washington Irving, in the Analectic Mag- 
azine, and of various other works tending to throw 
a light on the subject 5 he has also carefully con- 
sulted Niles's Register, and a few contemporary 
newspapers. With few exceptions, however, the 
present life is entirely written from original docu- 
ments and materials collected expressly for the pur- 
pose, and the utmost care has been taken in the 
verification of the facts. With regard to the tone 
of the book, it has been unavoidably rendered 
more controversial than the taste of the writer 
would have dictated ; but the assaults made by 
Captain ElUott against the character of Commo- 
dore Perry have been so notorious, and the at- 



PREFACE. VU 

tempts of Mr. Cooper to dignify this gentleman at 
Commodore Perry's expense so obvious, that the 
life of Perry would have been incomplete had the 
writer failed to make use of the ample materials 
before him to set the question between these two 
officers effectually at rest. 
Tarrytown, October 19, 1840. 



CONTENTS 



THE FIRST VOLUME. 



CHAPTER I. 



Pag« 



Introduction. — Ancestors of Perry. — Emigra- 
tion of Edmund Perry. — He settles in Ply- 
'mouth. — Driven away hy Religious Persecu- 
tion. — Removes to Narragansett. — Account of 
Perry^s Father. — He serves through the Rev- 
olutionary War. — 7^ captured. — Confined on 
board the Jersey. — Is released. — Recaptured, 
— Escapes. — Conclusion of War. — Becomes 
Master of a Merchantman. — Marries. — Birth 
of Oliver Hazard Perry. — Anecdotes of his 
Boyhood. — Is sent to School. — His various 
Teachers. — His Family settles in Newport, 
— Becomes a Pupil of Mr. Eraser. — Suffers 
from his Irascibility. — Firmness of Mrs. Per- 
ry. — He improves in his Studies. — Is taught 
Navigation. — Proves an apt Scholar. — Forms 
a taste for Reading. — French Aggressions on 
our Commerce. — Measures for its Protection. 
— Creation of a Navy. — Oliver^s Father ap- 
pointed Post-captain, — Builds the General 
Greene. — Oliver left in charge of the Family, 
— Conceives the idea of entering the Navy, — 

Gives reasons for his choice 13 

A2 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER n. 

Oliver enters as a Midshipman on hoard the Gen- 
eral Greene. — Cruise to the West Indies. — 
Return to Newport. — Second Cruise to the 
West Indies. — Ship ordered to St. Domingo. 
• — Co-operation with Toussaint. — Blockade 
and Capture of Jaquemel. — Cruise round the 
Island. — Part of Crew taken out by Commo- 
dore Talbot. — Ship ordered to the Missis, 
sippi. — Rencounter with a British line-of 
hattle Ship. — Spirited conduct of Captain 
Perry. — Return to Neurport. — Peace with 
France. — Reduction of the Navy. — Captain 
Perry left out. — Oliver retained. — Tripolitan 
War. — Early operations. — Oliver embarks in 
the Adams. — She sails for the Mediterranean. 
— Employed in Blockading. — Gives Convoy 
up the Mediterranean. — Visits Spain and 
Italy. — Arrives off Tripoli. — Boat Expedi- 
Hon. — Blockade. — Attempted Negotiation. — 
Squadron returns to Gibraltar. — Perry re- 
turns home. — His Occupations and Character 

CHAPTER m. 

?rosecution of Tripolitan War under Preble. — 
Perry'* s anxiety to take part in it. — Equipment 
of four Frigates. — Perry ordered to the Con- 
stellation. — Joins her at Washington. — Min- 
gles in Society. — Sails for the Mediterranean* 



Page 



CONTENTS. VI 

Pag* 

— Preble superseded. — The War loses its 
chivalrous Character. — Expedition of General 
Eaton. — lis partial Success. — Perry trans- 
ferred to the Nautilus. — Commodore Rodg. 
ers succeeds to the Command. — Concludes 
Peace. — Visits Tunis. — Confirms the friend^ 
ship of that Power. — The Nautilus visits Al- 
giers. — A change of Administration in that 
Regency. — Visit to Gibraltar. — Perry re- 
moved to the Constitution. — His Character as 
an Officer. — Returns home in the Essex. — 
Description of him by a Shipmate , . . . 62 

CHAPTER IV. 

Perry resumes his Studies at Newport. — Falls 
in Love. — Is employed in building Gunboats. 
— Is engaged to be Married. — Sails for New- 
York with Flotilla. — Employed in Protection 
of the Harbour. — Attack of the Leopard on 
the Chesapeake. — Perry^s Feelings on the oc- 
casion. — British Spoliations on our Commerce, 
— Our inability to protect it. — Perry ordered 
to build more Gunboats. — Appointed to com- 
mand the Revenge. — Attached to Commodore 
Rodger s's Squadron. — Ordered to Washing, 
ton to refit. — Sails for CJmrleston. — Cruises 
on Southern Coast. — Encounter with a British 
Sloop. — Expects an Engagement. — Prepares 
to board. — Pacific Termination. — Returns 
to Charleston. — Proceeds to New- York. — 



Vm CONTENTS. 



Pag© 



Receives Instructions from Commodore Rodg- 
ers. — Is ordered to Newport. — Engaged in 
a Survey of the Sound. — Shipwreck of the 
Revenge. — -Ineffectual efforts to save her. — 
Crew saved. — Court of Inquiry. — Perry hon- 
ourably acquitted. — Furloughed. — Married . 76 

CHAPTER V. 

State of our relations with Belligerants. — Na- 
poleon repeals his predatory Decrees. — Con- 
tinued Hostility of England. — War against 
our Commerce. — Impressment of our Seamen, 
— War with England. — Perry applies for 
Sea-service. — Appointed to command New- 
port Flotilla. — Zeal with which he enters on 
the service. — His Discipline. — Style of Cor- 
respondence. — Exercise of his Flotilla, — 
Capture of the Guerriere. — Lieutenant Mor- 
ris posted. — Dissatisfaction of the Service. — 
Perry approves of it. — His Conduct towards 
Mr, Morris. — Loss of Lieutenant Blodgeit, 
— Renewed application for Sea-service. — Of- 
fers his Services to Commx)dore Chaunceyfor 
the Lakes. — Capture of the Macedonian. — 
Proposed Increase of the Navy. — Suggests 
the expediency of building a Frigate in Rhode 
Island. — Lieutenant Allen appointed to the 
Argus. — Perry remonstrates. — Claims the 
Command. — His Delicacy to Allen. — Perry 
designated to command on Lake Erie . . .103 



CONTENTS. IX 

'A 

CHAPTER VI. 

Page 

Perry ordered to the Lakes. — Sends off Crews 
of Flotilla. — Visits his Parents. — Goes to 
Albany. — Joins Commodore Chauncey. — Pro- 
ceeds to Sacketfs Harbour. — Rumoured At- 
tack from the Enemy. — Perry detained on 
Lake Ontario. — Ordered to Erie. — His Jour- 
ney. — Rumour of an Attack on Erie. — J.r- 
rival at that Place. — Condition of the Squad- 
ron. — Difficulties of Equipment. — Perry vis- 
its Pittsburgh. — Returns to Erie. — Visits 
Niagara. — Storming of Fort George. — Per- 
ry^s Account of it. — Perry ordered to Black 
Rock. — Flotilla manned by Soldiers. — Labour 
of ascending Rapids. — Arrival at Buffalo. — 
Passing the British Squadron. — Arrival at 
Erie. — Preparation of the Squadron. — Want 
of Men. — Ordered to co-operate with General 
Harrison. — Urgent Letters from Government 
and the General. — Letter of entreaty to the 
Commodore for Men. — Invites him to assume 
the Command on Erie. — Contemplated Attack 
of the Enemy on Erie. — Perry receives small 
Re-enforcements, — Determines to sail in pur' 
suit of the Enemy 126 

CHAPTER Vn. 

Rise of Naval Armaments on Erie. — Character 
of the Lake. — Nature of Harbours. — Erie 
well chosen for Building our Squadron, — 



CONTENTS. 



Page 



Difficulty of Crossing the Bar, — Judicious 
Preparations, — Labour of getting the Law- 
rence over. — Enemy appear off the Harbour. 
— Disappear. — Our Squadron on the open 
Lake. — Prepare for Battle. — Sail in Pur- 
suit. — Return to Erie. — Arrival' of Re-en- 
forcements. — Letter from Commodore Chaun- 
cey. — Perry considers it insulting, — Ten- 
ders Resignation of his Command. — Commo- 
dore Chauncey promises Marines. — Reserves 
them for his own Ship. — Squadron sails for 
Sandusky. — Visit from General Harrison. — 
Perry goes off Maiden. — Offers Battle. — 
Anchors in Put-in Bay. — Illness of Perry. — 
Receives Re-enforcements. — Recovers. — Vis- 
its Maiden and Sandusky, — Reproachful Let- 
ter from Secretary. — Perry's Defence . . 169 

CHAPTER VIIL 

Intelligence of the Enemy^s Intention to Sail. — 
Relative Force of Squadrons. — Perry returns 
to Put-in Bay. — Last Instructions for Battle, 
— Enemy appears in Sight, standing for our 
Squadron. — Perry sails. — Shift of Wind. — 
Enemy to Leeward. — Clearing for Action. — 
Hoisting Battle-flag. — Cheers along the Line, 
— Action commences. — Destructive Fire on 
the Lawrence in bearing down. — Supported by 
Scorpion, Ariel, and Caledonia. — Niagara 
draws to Windward, — Desperate Resistance 



CONTENTS. XI 

Page 
of the Lawrence, — She is reduced to a Wreck, 

— Perry shifts to the Niagara, — Perils of his 
Passage. — Sympathy of the Lawrence'' s Crew, 
— He reaches the Niagara in Safety. — Sur- 
render of the Lawrence. — Death of Brooks. — 
The Niagara breaks the Enemy^s Line. — En- 
gages loth Sides. — British Squadron attempts 
to Wear. — Detroit and Queen Charlotte get 
foul. — Terrible raking Fire. — British Sur- 
render. — Appearance of both Squadrons. — 
Character of the Victory. — Official Letters, 
— Burial of Seamen. — Return to Put-in Bay, 
— Burial of Officers 211 

CHAPTER IX. 

National Consequences of the Victory. — Official 
Report. — Perplexities of Commodore Perry. 
— Favourable Notice of Captain Elliott. — Tin- 
favourable Rumours concerning him. — Perry^s 
Efforts to suppress them. — Gives him a Cer- 
tificate. — His Motives. — Informs General 
Brooks of his Son's Death. — Preparations 
for transporting the Army to Canada. — An~ 
ecdote of Perry^s Benevolence. — Removal of 
the Army to Put-in Bay ; to Middle Sister ; 
to Maiden. — Ascent of Detroit River. — Perry 
volunteers as Aid to General Harrison. — Rap' 
turously received by the Army. — Exciting 
Pursuit. — Ene7ny overtaken. — Battle of the 
Thames. — Charge of mounted Keniuckians. — 



XU CONTENTS. 

Page 

Death of Tecumseh. — Capture of the British 
Army. — Anecdote of Perry^s Horsemanship* 
— Affords Protection to the Moravian Mis. 
sionaries, — Benevolence to Afflicted Woman, 
— Captain Elliotfs Complaints against Perry 266 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 



CHAPTER I. 

Introduction. — Ancestors of Perry. — Emigration of 
Edmund Perry. — He settles in Plymouth. — Driv- 
en away by Religious Persecution. — Removes to 
Narragansett. — Account of Perry^s Father. — He 
serves through the Revolutionary War. — Is cap- 
tured. — Confined on hoard the Jersey. — Is released. 
— Recaptured. — Escapes. — Conclusion of War. 
— Becomes Master of a Merchantman. — Mar- 
ries. — Birth of Oliver Hazard Perry. — Anec- 
dotes of his Boyhood. — 7^ sent to School. — His 
various Teachers. — His Family settles in New- 
port. — Becomes a Pupil of Mr. Eraser. — Suffers 
from his Irascibility. — Firmness of Mrs. Perry. — 
He improves in his Studies. — Is taught Naviga- 
tion. — Proves an apt Scholar. — Forms a taste for 
Reading. — French Aggressions on our Commerce, 
— Measures for its Protection. — Creation of a 
Navy. — Oliver^s Father appointed Post-captain. — 
Builds the General Greene. — Oliver left in charge 
of the Family. — Conceives the idea of entering the 
Navy. — Gives reasons for his choice. 

Among the noblest of a nation's possessions is 
the memory of her great men. In the lowest state 
B 



14 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

of degradation to which a nation may be reduced 
by her own degenerate profligacy, or by external 
causes which she cannot control, the memory of 
her mighty dead serves to solace her regrets, and 
to stimulate the noblest of the living to imitate 
their example ; to vindicate the fame and charac- 
ter of their country, and, haply, to restore its liber- 
ties. Greece, in the midst of all the humiliation 
to which she w^as reduced by her own degeneracy, 
or by the resistless energy and numbers of barba- 
rian conquerors, urged on by religious fanaticism, 
could still exult in the recollection of her past his- 
tory, despise her conquerors, glory in her national- 
ity, and find, in the memory of her Leonidas, Epam- 
inondas, and Alcibiades, inspiration to fire the 
minds and nerve the arms of a Marco Botzaris 
and a Canaris. 

Should America be also fated to know her sea- 
son of decay, to sink under misfortune, and behold 
the extinction of her liberties, she may yet exult 
in the cherished memory of her patriots of other 
times, and find, in the inspiration of their example, 
worthy imitators of a Washington, a Frankhn, a 
Warren, a Decatur, and a Perry. Her sages may 
well compare, for wisdom and virtue, with th** 
wisest and most patriotic of other lands. Brief as 
is her history, and few as happily have been her 
wai:^, no country has produced heroes of a truer 
stamp. Among these, he w^hom we have T^??' 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 15 

named lingers in the memory, surrounded with all 
the attributes that can adorn or give lustre to suc- 
cessful valour : with modesty, kindness, courtesy, 
chivalrous self-devotion, lively sympathies, and a 
generous humanity. To place the memory of 
Perry before his countrymen in a more complete 
and enduring form, to show him in his real char- 
acter, to depict his virtues without concealing his 
faults, is the object of the following narrative. 

Edmund Perry, the paternal ancestor of Oliver 
Hazard Perry in the fifth generation, and the 
first who emigrated to this country, was born in 
Devonshire, in England, about the year 1630. He 
was a gentleman of education and of considerable 
literary attainments. Being an influential member 
of the Society of Friends, and one of its public 
speakers, he became the subject of the persecution 
so rife during the domination of Cromwell, espe- 
cially against the Quakers, who, tampering with 
the army and preaching universal peace, seduced 
the mihtary zealots from their duty, and bade fair 
thus to put an end to the dominion of the saints. 
This led to the emigration of Edmund Perry to 
Plymouth, in Massachusetts, about thirty years 
subsequent to the foundation of that colony. 

The persecution, however, which had driven 
him from England, raged with equal inveteracy 
in the colony in which he had taken refuge, 
though founded by those who had fled, like him- 



16 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

self, in search of religious liberty. In order to be 
able to worship God according to the dictates of 
his conscience, he was compelled to remove far- 
ther from the haunts of civilized man ; and at 
length, with others of his persuasion, found a rest- 
ing-place in South Kingston, on the waters of 
Narra^ansett Bay, where they form their junction 
with Long Island Sound and the Atlantic, encir- 
cling the beautiful promontory which is also called 
by the name of Narragansett. 

A more tolerant spirit existed in the colony of 
Rhode Island than its neighbour of Massachusetts 
Bay, by the persecuted of which it was chiefly 
settled. At any rate, there were none but Indians 
to disturb the emigrant in the possession of an es- 
tate which had been amicably acquired by pur- 
chase, and which continued in possession of the 
family at the birth of the subject of this narrative. 
The treatment of the Indians in this settlement was 
kind and conciliatory. Their descendants still 
continue to exist there in a civilized state ; and it 
may be here mentioned as a remarkable fact, that 
one of them fell on Lake Erie on board the Law- 
rence. 

Freeman Perry, great-grandson of Edmund Per- 
ry, and grandfather of Oliver Hazard Perry, was 
born on the second of February, 1732, and at the 
age of twenty-four married the daughter of Oliver 
Hazard, a descendant of one of the original Qua- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 17 

ker settlers of Narragansett, whose brother held the 
station of lieutenant-governor of the colony. OH- 
ver Hazard was a gentleman of large property, 
elegant manners, and cultivated tastes. The state 
of society in Rhode Island in those times not a lit- 
tle resembled that of Virginia. The cultivation 
of the soil was then performed by slaves, and com- 
merce had introduced wealth, with its consequent 
luxuries and refinements. Freeman Perry was 
educated to the legal profession, in which he ac- 
quired distinction, filling, in a creditable manner, 
various offices of trust, such as member of the co- 
lonial Assembly, and judge of the court of Common 
Pleas. 

The third son of this gentleman, called Chris- 
topher Raymond, father of the subject of this biog- 
raphy, was born on the fourth of December, 1761. 
Notwithstanding his early age when the revolution 
broke out, he was engaged throughout nearly the 
whole of the war in fighting the battles of his 
country, both by sea and land. After serving for 
a time in a corps of volunteers raised in Narragan- 
sett, called the Kingston Reds, he entered before 
the mast in a privateer commanded by a Captain 
Reed, and, on the termination of the cruise, made 
a second in the Mifflin, commanded by George 
Wait Eabcock. In the course of this last cruise 
he was captured and taken into New-York, where 
he was confined for three months on board the 
B2 



18 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

Jersey prison-ship, subject to many miseries, occa- 
sioned by the disproportioned numbers that were 
crowded together in a small space, the loathsome 
filth in which they existed, the unwholesomeness 
and insufficiency of the food, and all the studied 
barbarities by which Britons sought to punish their 
fellow-subjects of the New World for cherishing 
the love of freedom, and defending the liberties 
which were part of their birthright as descendants 
of Englishmen. Near the Wallabout, in Brooklyn, 
is a monument, erected over the remains of ten 
thousand Americans, victims of the systematic cru- 
elty of British prison-ships. 

Christopher Raymond Perry was among the 
small number of those who escaped to recount the 
horrible story of British captivity on board the 
Jersey. He came forth, however, the emaciated 
victim of the contagion which reigned within that 
abode of horror. But his zeal in behalf of liberty, 
and his resentment against England, were only 
quickened into fresh intensity by the treatment 
which he had received. So soon as his health 
was restored, he entered on board the U. S. ship 
Trumbull, commanded by Captain James Nichol- 
son, and was on board that ship during her memo- 
rable combat with the Watt, a British letter of 
marque of greatly superior force. After an action 
of two hours and a half, during which the Trum- 
bull had thirty-nine men killed and wounded, the 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 1^ 

English ship almost entirely ceased firing, and 
gave indications of an intention to surrender. Un- 
fortunately, at this conjuncture, the topmasts of the 
Trumbull, which were badly wounded by the en- 
emy's lofty firing, went over^the side, when the 
latter, having lost no fewer than ninety-two men 
in killed and wounded, was happy to escape. 
This action was considered one of the severest of 
the Revolution. 

Subsequently to this cruise, young Perry entered 
on board a privateer, bound on a cruise on the en- 
emy's own coast He was, however, again cap- 
tured, and confined in prison in Ireland during 
eighteen months, at the end of which time he ef- 
fected his escape ; and, having passed in a British 
vessel to the island of St. Thomas in the charac- 
ter of a British seaman, took passage from thence 
to Charleston, where he arrived after the conclu- 
sion of the war in 1783. 

Perry continued to devote himself to the profes- 
sion of the sea, and made a voyage to Ireland as 
mate of a merchantman. Among the passengers 
on the return voyage to the port of Philadelphia 
was a lady, born in Ireland, but of Scotch extrac- 
tion, by the name of Sarah Alexander. The ac- 
quaintance thus begun on the ocean subsequently 
ripened into a strong attachment, and a year after, 
being in October, 1784, Christopher Raymond 
ha\ing risen to command, though as yet only 



20 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

twenty-three years of age, he found himself in a 
situation to marry ; and, having previously had 
the fortune to win the consent of Miss Alexander, 
they were married in Philadelphia. They forth- 
with removed to South Kingston, where the young 
and uncommonly handsome couple was received 
with joyous celebrations by Perry's extensive fam- 
ily circle, and particularly by his maternal grand- 
father, the venerable Oliver Hazard, whose cour- 
teous and graceful demeanour impressed the bride 
most favourably as to the associates among whom 
her lot was now cast so far from her home. 

The young couple became domesticated with 
Judge Perry, the captain's father, who resided on 
a farm of near two hundred acres, which had been 
in possession of his family since the settlement of 
the country. The old homestead stood at the base 
of a hill, which commanded an extensive view of 
the surrounding countr)^, interspersed in many di- 
rections by picturesque lakes — one of them, called 
Point Judith Pond, being beautifully dotted by 
green islands — and bounded, by the irregular wind- 
ing of the coast, with the waters of Narragansett, 
separating it from the opposite shores of Rhode 
Island, while far in the southern distance spread 
the broad Atlantic. The old postroad between 
New-York and Boston, which, in the earlier days 
of the colonies, followed the circuitous hne of the 
coast, out of the reach of Indian depredations, pass- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 21 

ed at a short distance in front of the house ; while 
in a picturesque and retired nook near an adjoining- 
wood stood the family burying-ground, within 
which several generations had already been in- 
terred. Ere Captain Perry again resumed his 
profession, making voyages to many lands, the 
young couple continued for a season in this pleas- 
ing retirement, to enjoy together the sweets of do- 
mestic happiness. As the mother's character so 
sensibly affects that of the children, it may not be 
amiss here to say that Mrs. Perry was exceedingly 
intelligent and well-informed, and that, to a con- 
siderable share of personal attraction and a per- 
suasive gentleness of demeanour, she added a de- 
gree of force of mind and energy of character not 
often found in her own sex, and seldom equalled 
in ours. 

Their first child, Oliver Hazard Perry, was born 
on the twenty-third of August, 1785. His great- 
grandfather, Ohver Hazard, having died shortly 
before the birth of this child, and his uncle, Ohver 
Hazard Perry, being lost at sea on his passage from 
South Carolina about the same time, the boy was, 
at the request of his grandmother, named after her 
father and son thus simultaneously removed. The 
chief characteristics of Oliver's early years were 
an uncommon share of beauty, a sweetness and 
gentleness of disposition which corroborated the 
expression of his countenance, and a perfect dis- 



i2 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

regard of danger, amounting to apparent uncon- 
sciousness. An anecdote illustrative of this pecu- 
liarity is still preserved in the family. When lit- 
tle more than two years old, Oliver had strayed 
into the road in company with an older child, and 
seated himself in the middle of it, when a horse- 
man being discovered approaching, his companion 
jumped up and removed out of the way, calling to 
Oliver to do the same. He, however, sat still un- 
til the horseman approached, and drew up imme- 
diately over him, when, looking up calmly into his 
face, he lisped to him, " Man ! you will not ride 
over me, will you ?" The horseman, happening 
to be a friend of the family, dismounted, and car- 
ried the boy into the house, where he related the 
story with great interest, and much the same pride 
as if it had been his own child. He thought Oli- 
ver's conduct gave token of a confiding as well as 
a thoroughly courageous disposition. 

Another anecdote, indicative of the same courage 
and of generous sympathy, was frequently related 
by his mother. When about five years old, he 
was sitting studying his lesson in the same room 
in which his father was busy with some accounts 
and papers. His sister, who was two years young- 
er than himself, was playing about the floor, and, 
having found a paper which had fallen, had torn 
d into pieces, and turned her attention, according 
to the custom of young ladies of that age, to some 



OLIVER HAZARD PEKRY. 23 

new mischief. Presently the paper was missed, 
and the two children directed to search for it. 
Oliver soon found the fragments and handed them 
to his father ; the delinquency of the little girl was 
manifest in her shamefaced air. The paper hap- 
pened to be of importance, and the father, in the 
irritation of the moment, lifted his hand to inflict 
some trifling punishment, when Oliver placed him- 
self between, and, passing one arm round his little 
sister, raised the other to intercept the blow, say- 
ing, at the same time, in a firm, yet deprecating 
and respectful tone, " Oh, papa ! don't strike her !" 
His mother often spoke of his manner of perform- 
ing this little act as indescribable; at the same 
time so protecting and kind towards his sister, and 
so firm, so earnest, yet so respectful towards his 
father. Captain Perry was completely disarmed 
of his resentment, and overcome by the words and 
manner of the child ; for he was a man of suscep- 
tible and generous feelings. The little mischief- 
maker was received into favour ; her affectionate 
confidence in her brother was not diminished by 
his conduct on this occasion ; and his parents ever 
after freely intrusted her, as well as their other 
children, to his guidance and protection. The 
anecdote is interesting, as showing that his charac- 
ter in boyhood and maturer years was consistent 
with itself, and that the qualities of courage and 
generosity were as fully displayed within the nar- 



24 AMERICAN BIOGRAPH-i. 

row circle of his secluded home as when under 
the broad gaze of an admiring world. 

Soon after this incident, Oliver, having already 
learned to read under the tuition of his mother, 
was removed to a school established by one of the 
neighbours for the benefit of the rising generation. 
The increasing family and growing cares of Mrs. 
Perry rendered this relief desirable. The school 
was a sort of voluntary association, established 
without fee or gratuity by a benevolent bachelor 
of the neighbourhood, of considerable acquirements, 
though more noted for his goodness of heart and 
childlike simplicity. This old gentleman was as 
indolent as he was kind-hearted. He had often 
been importuned to open a school for the education 
of the children of the neighbourhood, and at length 
consented to do so on condition that he should be 
allowed to have his bed in the schoolroom. This 
being granted, the old gentleman reclined in state 
among his pupils, being assisted in his instructions, 
and in such little offices of flagellation as were in- 
dispensable, by his nephew, the present Judge 
William Peckham, of South Kingston, by whom 
the anecdote is related. Young Peckham's dele- 
gated dignity, however, was attended with this 
disadvantage, that, being nearest his uncle's bed, 
whenever the old gentleman felt an impulse to in- 
flid punishment himself, his nephew, being near- 
est, asually had the benefit of it. As the school 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 25 

was at some distance, Oliver, with several female 
cousins of his own name, who lived on the ad- 
joining farm, made their daily pilgrimage togeth- 
er. His little cousins had no brother, and were 
therefore glad to accept the protection of Oli- 
ver, who, though less in years than themselves, so 
threw himself between them and danger in all ad- 
ventures on the road as to inspire a confidence in 
his manliness which was always justified. He 
seems, indeed, from his earliest youth, to have ex- 
ercised an influence over those who approached 
him ; this fact is attested by all the surviving com- 
panions of his youth. "While his extraordinary 
beauty attracted attention to his person, it was 
soon converted into affectionate regard and respect 
by the graceful amenity of his manners, by a mod- 
esty which had in it nothing of shamefaced awk- 
wardness, and by a display of quiet firmness and 
calm self- composure. The distinction Avhich he 
subsequently acquired, while it gratified many of 
the friends of his youth even to tears, excited no 
astonishment ; it seemed but the realization of 
those just hopes which his youth had inspired. 

At Tower Hill, distant four miles from Judge 
Perry's farm, there was an excellent school, kept 
by a venerable Scotchman of the name of Kelly ; 
" old Master Kelly," as he might well be called, 
as he had already taught three generations of that 
vicinage, and was now busy in dinning the same 
C 



26 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

instruction into the fourth. Thither Oliver waii 
despatciied so soon as his age quahfied him for 
the walk, and his female cousins became again the 
companions of his daily journeys, and subject to 
his protection. It is recorded of this worthy and 
time-honoured pedagogue, that, during the whole 
of his long servitude at Tower Hill, he had never 
once been known to lose his temper, but ever pre- 
served a blessed equanimity, to be envied by all of 
his arduous and important calling. During Oli- 
ver's continuance at the school, old Master Kelly 
was obliged to retire from sheer superannuation, 
and was succeeded by a Mr. Southworth, from 
Connecticut. This gentleman is represented to 
have been also an excellent teacher, and to have 
possessed a happy faculty of attaching his schol- 
ars. Both Oliver and his cousins were accustomed 
afterward to speak of the time they were under 
his tuition as the happiest of their school-days, and 
to recount with lively pleasure the recollections of 
their wayside adventures in their daily rambles. 
To this early association with his female cousins 
he was doubtless indebted for his peculiar gentle- 
ness of manners, and to a preference of female so- 
ciety to that of his own sex, which characterized 
him through life. 

At the end of a year or two Mr. Southworth re- 
moved from the neighbourhood, and Doctor Perry 
fortunately procured the services of a Scotch gen- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 27 

tleman of education and talents, who had recently- 
been in the family of the governor, residing with 
him as tutor to his children. Oliver also had the 
benefit of his instructions, and became a temporary 
inmate of his uncle's family. Mr. Bryer proved 
not only an admirable instructer to the children, 
but an agreeable and entertaining companion. 
Unfortunately, at the end of a few months, he 
gave evidence of a failing which had caused me 
loss of a considerable fortune and his ruin in his 
own country, namely, an excessive fondness for the 
bottle. To be sure, he had the grace to absent 
himself from home during his periodical fits of 
intemperance; but, as the education of the chil- 
dren was thus interrupted, and as he was not ren- 
dered more clear-headed or more agreeable on his 
return, it became necessary to relinquish his ser- 
vices. 

Meantime, Oliver's father had long since resumed 
the prosecution of his profession, and made many 
voyages, as commander and supercargo of mer- 
chant ships, to Europe, South America, and the 
East Indies. By these he became in possession of a 
handsome income. Desiring to secure for his chil- 
dren, amounting now to four, a better education 
than South Kingston afforded, and to promote his 
professional convenience, he established his family 
in Newport, about the time that the private school 
at Doctor Perry's was broken ud by the misadven- 



SS AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

tures of Mr. Bryer. Here Oliver was placed at 
the school of Mr. Frazer, under whose skilful and 
judicious tuition he made rapid proficiency in all 
his studies. The relaxed discipline of the country 
schools, where, the numbers being small, every- 
thing was conducted somewhat upon the principle 
of brotherly love, furnished but an imperfect prep- 
aration for the sterner rule which the Highland 
gentleman found it necessary to exercise among 
his more numerous and heterogeneous disciples at 
Newport. The early days of Oliver's admission 
into Mr. Frazer's school were signalized by a very 
untoward occurrence ; no less a one than his re- 
ceiving a broken head one day for some trifling 
and perhaps unconscious misdemeanour, from a 
heavy ferule hurled by Mr. Frazer in an ungovern- 
able fit of passion, such as he was often subject to. 
Seizing his hat, without leave asked or granted, 
Oliver went immediately home, and told his moth- 
er he could never enter that school again. 

Mrs. Perry was a woman of strong feelings, 
eminently courageous temperament, and command- 
ing character. She was necessarily indignant at 
the treatment of her child ; but she was not much 
edified by Oliver's determinations as to what he 
would or would not do, nor disposed to yield to 
them. She did not reply to his decision not to re- 
turn to Mr. Frazer's school, but quietly bound up 
his wounded head, and soothed him with expres- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 29 

jions of maternal solicitude. Had shei consulted 
only her resentment, it would have led her, at 
every hazard, to withdraw her child from the 
authority of one who had abused it. She wise- 
ly reflected, however, that Oliver, being an un- 
usually high-spirited boy, and his father general- 
ly absent, as he happened to be at that time, if 
she yielded to his wishes in this instance, he might 
expect the same indulgence whenever he felt dis- 
contented with a school from motives less well- 
founded. This would not only be a disadvantage 
to him with regard to his studies, but might tend 
to weaken her own control over him. She there- 
fore wrote a note to Mr. Frazer, stating, in sub- 
dued terms, her indignant feelings at the outrage 
upon her child, coupled with the motives which 
restrained her from withdrawing him from the 
school, and concluding by the expression of a hope 
that she should not have cause to regret the mark 
of renewed confidence which she thus gave to Mr. 
Frazer, by again intrusting her son to him. On 
the following morning, as the usual hour came 
round, she called to Oliver, as if she had heard 
nothing of his declaration of the previous day, 
and told him it was school-time. At the same 
time, she placed the note for Mr. Frazer into his 
hand, and told him that she did not think he 
would receive similar treatment again. The proud 
boy's Up quivered, and a tear stood in his eye 3 but 
C2 



30 AMEEICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

the thought of disobeying his mother had never 
entered his head, nor did it probably ever do so 
until the day of his death. She lived to rear five 
sons, all of whom entered the naval service of their 
country, and whom she fitted to command others 
by teaching them thus early to obey. 

Mr. Frazer was conscious of his own culpable 
violence, and alive to the good sense and magna- 
nimity of Mrs. Perry's conduct. He devoted him- 
self unremittingly to Oliver's improvement, became 
warmly attached to him, and won his attachment 
in return ; for Oliver, though high-tempered, was 
a stranger to vindictiveness and cherished resent- 
ment. Newport was then an eminently commer- 
cial port. As many of the young men were in- 
tended for the sea, Mr. Frazer had an evening 
class for the purpose of teaching mathematics, and 
their appHcation to navigation and nautical astron- 
omy. He took a peculiar pleasure in initiating 
Oliver into these sciences ; and in the intervals be- 
tween school-hours, and on holydays, would fre- 
quently walk to the beach with him, where a ho- 
rizon could be obtained to take astronomic observa- 
tions, and otherwise render his lessons more prac- 
tical. Before Oliver left Mr. Frazer's school, the 
latter was wont to boast that he was the best nav- 
igator in Rhode Island. 

In Newport Oliver attracted to himself no less 
attention and good-will than among the partial 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 31 

friends of his childhood in South Kingston. His 
personal beauty, his modesty, and the mature and 
gentle gracefulness of his manners, won for him 
many friends. Among the number was Count 
Rochambeau, son of the distinguished general of 
that name, who commanded the French auxiliary 
army during our revolutionary war. This noble- 
man, being driven from his country by the terrors 
of the Revolution, had established himself at New- 
port, where his father's previous residence prepared 
for him many friends. Newport offered, moreover, 
many attractions to a person of refinement. Many 
of the inhabitants were wealthy and highly edu- 
cated, and the tone of society was elegant and in* 
tellectual. Oliver's pleasing manners attracted 
the attention of the count, and his amiability and 
worth soon converted the feeling of partiality into 
a sincere friendship. Notwithstanding the boy's 
youth, he frequently invited him to dine in com- 
pany with older friends, and, when he left New- 
port, presented him with a beautiful little watch 
as a token of his regard. 

When Oliver was but eleven years old. Bishop 
Seabury came to Newport, in the course of an 
episcopal visitation of the Eastern states, for the 
purpose of ordaining clergymen and confirming 
the young. Oliver's parents scarcely considered 
him old enough to receive and appreciate that sol- 
emn rite ; but the bishop, having been greatly 



32 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

pleased by his appearance and manners, and by 
the maturity and seriousness which his conversa- 
tion indicated, requested that he might come for- 
ward for confirmation. Afterward, when the bish- 
op came to take leave of Oliver's parents, he laid 
his hands upon the boy's head, and blessed him in 
a manner so solemn and emphatic as to make an 
indelible impression upon all who were present. 
His mother was greatly touched by the incident, 
and received the impression that the blessing had 
been heard and answered, and would follow him 
through life. 

Towards the close of the year 1797, Captain 
Perry, having secured a small competency, retired 
from his profession, and settled in the village of 
Westerly, in a remote part of the state. Oliver 
was now entering his thirteenth year ; his educa- 
tion was unusually advanced for his age, for he 
had been a dihgent student at Mr. Frazer's during 
the last five years ; and an unbounded fondness for 
books, kept up from the early period when his 
mother had first taught him to read, had imparted 
to him an unusual share of general information. 
Fortunately for the youth of those times, novels 
were not so abundant nor so universally diffused 
as now, and the reading of Oliver was confined to 
Plutarch, Shakspeare, the Spectator, and works 
of a similar character, suited to instruct and fur 
nish the mind, and give force to the character. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 33 

About this period, our relations with the French 
repubUc were beginning to assume a hostile char- 
acter. That ambitious and unprincipled govern- 
ment having expected to receive active assistance 
from us in her war against England, under a false 
construction of the alliance entered into during our 
war of independence, was provoked by our cau- 
tious neutrality. Deluded by the friendship of an 
extravagant and intemperate faction in the United 
States, who justified all the horrors of the French 
Revolution, into the belief that the great body of 
the American people was in their favour, the 
French sought to involve us in the war as their 
allies, by infringing our neutrality and complica- 
ting our relations with England. Citizen Genet, 
the French representative in the United States, not 
only undertook to grant commissions and fit out 
privateers in the United States to cruise against 
British commerce, but actually succeeded in send- 
ing some vessels to sea in defiance of our govern- 
ment. These, moreover, captured British vessels 
on our own coasts, and even within our navigable 
waters. Not content with this measure of aggres- 
sion, insult, and contumely, the French cruisers 
and privateers soon after began to capture our own 
merchant vessels. 

Every attempt to obtain redress from the Frenct 
government for these aggravated grievances hav- 
ing failed, Congress so far adopted the recommen- 



34 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

dation of the president for an enlarged plan of 
naval defence as to authorize him, in April, 1798, 
to purchase, hire, or build twelve ships, of not 
more than twenty guns each, to be added to the 
six frigates which then constituted our navy, and 
three of which only, namely, the United States, 
the Constitution, and Constellation, were already 
launched. At the same time, a separate depart- 
ment of the government was created, to superin- 
tend the affairs of the navy, which had hitherto 
been under the control of the war department; 
and Benjamin Stoddert was subsequently created 
the first secretary of the navy under the Federal 
Constitution. Soon after, the president was au- 
thorized to purchase twelve additional ships, of 
from eighteen to thirty-two guns, and to instruct 
the commanders of our ships of .war to capture 
any French cruisers, whether men-of-war or priva- 
teers, that might be found upon our coasts, having 
committed, or being likely, as there might be rea- 
son to believe, to commit any depredations on our 
commerce ; also, to recapture any American ves- 
sels that might have been already seized. Laws 
were subsequently passed for the capture of French 
cruisers wherever they might be found, and for the 
condemnation of the prizes that might thus be 
•made. Such was the origin of the quasi war with 
France, more f£imiliarly known as the French dis- 
turbances. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 35 

The prospect of a naval contest with a nation 
which had so insultingly trampled on our commer- 
cial rights, and the recollection of his youthful en- 
terprises on the ocean in the revolutionary war, 
prompted Captain Perry to seek employment in 
the marine about to be created. Strong applica- 
tions in his behalf, from the most influential per- 
sons in Rhode Island, were forwarded to the pres- 
ident, and he was at once commissioned a post- 
captain in the navy. On the ninth day of June, 
1798, two days after the date of the commission, 
instructions were transmitted by Oliver Wolcott, 
the secretary of the treasury, to Mr. George Cham- 
plin, of Newport, directing him to procure such a 
ship as Captain Perry should approve of No 
suitable ship could be found, and the construction 
of one was immediately commenced at the town 
of Warren, near Bristol in Rhode Island, in which 
neighbourhood ship-timber abounded. Thither 
Captain Perry at once removed, to attend to the 
construction of the ship, which it had been deter- 
mined to name after General Greene, the most dis- 
tinguished of the sons of Rhode Island. 

Meantime, Mrs. Perry having accompanied her 
husband to Warren, Oliver, then not quite thirteen 
years old, remained in complete charge of the fam- 
ily, making all the necessary purchases, attending 
that his sister and younger brothers went regularly 
to school, keeping his parents constantly advised 



36 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

by letter of all that was passing, and conducting 
the whole affairs of the family with prudence and 
regularity. The obedience which he received 
from his younger brothers and from all the house- 
hold w^as unquestioning and unqualified. With all 
this early influence over others, Oliver was still, 
however, a boy, with all the tastes of one, except 
that he had little propensity to mischief. Among 
his favourite amusements of this period was sail- 
mg boats and planks in the Pawcatuck river, 
which made an elbow quite near the house. Mr. 
T. S. Taylor, now of South Kingston, was his 
schoolfellow and playmate in Westerly ; and, in 
bearing recent testimony to the good temper and 
kind feelings which characterized Oliver, and ren- 
dered him a universal favourite, states, that the 
only occasion on which he ever saw. him angry 
was in one of their sailing excursions in the shoal 
water of the Pawcatuck, when the boys were rep- 
resenting a sea engagement ; and Oliver's raft hap- 
pening to be run down by that of young Taylor, 
who was the opposing admiral, Oliver's rage be- 
came ungovernable, and he was for a moment 
anxious to resort to any means, however foreign 
to the prescribed warfare, to recover the lost ad- 
vantage of the day. Among his habitual play- 
mates were his next brother Raymond and his 
cousin, George Perry, who, being a resident of the 
family and part of his garrison, joined daily in a 
game of ball before the house, into the sprit of 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 37 

which Oliver entered with, all his soul, and with 
conspicuous activity, to the delight of his sisters, 
by one of whom the anecdote is related, to show 
that he had the tastes of his age, and that the con- 
trol which he so early exercised over others was 
not owing to any undue assumption of manhood, 
but to his calmness, gentleness, and habits of self- 
command. 

Amid this blending of manly and boyish occu- 
pations, Oliver was meditating seriously the plan 
of his future life. He had early imbibed a desire 
for the military profession, from the conversation 
of his mother. The friends of this lady, though 
Protestants and of Scotch descent, had been in- 
volved in the Irish rebellion. She herself had felt 
a lively enthusiasm in the cause of liberty, and had 
listened, '\\dth deep interest, to every account she 
had heard of battles and skirmishes in the neigh- 
bourhood. She took a pleasure in recounting to 
her son the achievements of her countrymen, and 
always insisted that they were the bravest people 
in the world. These narratives had fired the mind 
of Oliver, and created a desire in him to pursue the 
profession of arms. He had been born almost on 
the shore of the Atlantic, and with water and 
ships perpetually in sight. His residence in New« 
port, too, and the occupations of his father, had 
brought him much in connexion with ships and 
seamen, and blended with his inclination for a mil- 
D 



38 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

itary life a desire to make his home upon the sea. 
When, therefore, hostihties with France became 
inevitable, and his father received his commission 
as a post-captain in the navy, and was appointed 
to the General Greene, the means of gratifying 
his double tastes for war and for the sea were at 
once provided. He wrote to his father, asking his 
leave to enter the navy ; and, being requested to 
state the motives which influenced him in his choice, 
he did so in detail and at considerable length. Mr. 
Thomas Hazard, a relation of Captain Perry, who 
is still living, happened to be present at Warren 
when this letter was received. It was handed to 
him to read; and the good reasons that were 
given for the choice, and the mature, sensible, and 
manly terms in which they were expressed, made 
an impression which is not yet effaced from the 
mind of the old gentleman. It is much to be re- 
gretted, that in the various removals and vicissi- 
tudes of the family, this letter, with almost every 
other relating to the youth of Perry, has disap- 
peared. It would be of no little interest to exam- 
ine how far the motives with which he entered 
upon his profession were borne out by the results, 
and to compare his hopes with their after fulfil- 
ment. We should no doubt find in the comparison 
a rare example of a cloud castle excelled by the 
splendour of the real structure, and youthful as- 
pirations for glory outdone by the reality. 



OLIVER HAZARD PEREY. 39 



CHAPTER n. 

Oliver enters as a Midshipman on hoard the General 
Greene. — Cruise to the West Indies. — Return to 
Newport. — Second Cruise to the West Indies. — 
Ship ordered to St. Do?ningo. — Co-operation with 
Toussaint. — Blockade and Capture of Jaquemel. 
— Cruise round the Island. — Part of Crew taken 
out by Commodore Talbot. — Ship ordered to the 
Mississippi. — Rencounter with a British line-of- 
hattle Ship. — Spirited conduct of Captain Perry, 
— Return to Newport. — Peace with France. — Re- 
duction of the Navy. — Captain Perry left out. — 
Oliver retained. — Tripolitan War. — Early opera- 
tions. — Oliver embarks in the Adams. — She saibfor 
the Mediterranean. — Employed in Blockading. — 
Gives Convoy up the Mediterranean. — Visits Spain 
and Italy. — Arrives off Tripoli. — Boat Expedition, 
— Blockade. — Attempted Negotiation. — Squadron 
returns to Gibraltar. — Perry returns home. — His 
Occupations and Character, 

Captain Perry had commenced the building 
of the General Greene immediately after receiv- 
ing his commission, but it was not until the 
spring of the following year that the ship was 
ready to proceed to sea. She was a small frig- 
ate, rated at twenty-eight, and mounting probably 



iO AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

thirty-six guns. The officers were chiefly ap- 
pointed from Rhode Island, and the selection of 
them was intrusted by the secretary of the navy 
to Captain Perry. When, therefore, he had re- 
ceived Oliver's letter, assigning reasons for his 
wish to enter the navy, and had determined, with 
the consent of Mrs. Perry, to accede to it, there 
was no farther difficulty to be encountered. Oli- 
ver's name was placed on the hst of those recom- 
mended to fill the stations of midshipmen on board 
the General Greene, and in April, 1799, he re- 
ceived his warrant and orders to report for duty. 
Bidding adieu to his home and the companions of 
his childhood, he embarked with his father, and 
soon after sailed for the island of Cuba. It was 
in the West India seas that the French cruisers 
most abounded, and that our commerce suffered 
most from their depredations. The ship was en- 
gaged for several weeks in giving convoy to our 
merchant vessels bound from Havana to the Uni- 
ted States. The yellow fever having, however, 
broken out among her crew, compelled Captain 
Perry to abandon his station in order to check the 
progress of the disease. He proceeded, accord- 
ingly, to Newport, and arrived there towards the 
close of July. 

On the departure of Captain Perry from home, 
he had removed his family from Westerly to Tow- 
er Hill, in order that Mrs. Perry might be within 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 41 

/each of the friendly offices of his relations. Thith- 
er Oliver accompanied his father, and he remained 
chiefly at home during the period employed in re- 
fitting the ship and restoring the health of her 
crew. He was, of course, a person of great con- 
sequence, on his return from foreign parts, in the 
eyes of his younger brothers and sisters. They 
used to go forth betimes in the morning to pick 
berries for his breakfast, before the dew had been 
drunk up by the early sun, and followed him in all 
his rambles with untiring affection, and with a 
certain respectful deference, which was perhaps 
now a little enhanced by their awe of his uniform. 
During his absence he had commenced learning to 
perform on the flute, an accomplishment in some 
degree or other universal among midshipmen, but 
•which he afterward carried to very great perfec- 
tion. His childish companions were, how^ever, 
anything but fastidious critics ; and, in their sylvan 
rambles, the simple melodies which he drew forth 
appeared to them altogether charming. 

The health of the crew of the General Greene 
having been completely restored, she resumed her 
station off* the Havana early in the autumn, and 
continued to give convoy to our vessels bound 
throuo;h the Bahama Channel or into the Gulf of 
Mexico. The disturbed condition of St. Domingo, 
and the piracies committed on our commerce by 
the followers of Rigaud, a mulatto chieftain who 
D2 



42 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

aimed at establishing a rival power independent 
of Toussaint, occasioned the General Greene to be 
soon after ordered to that island. She was placed 
under the orders of Commodore Talbot, who was 
about to be despatched there in the Constitution, 
di7id who directed Captain Perry to proceed at 
once to the station and circumnavigate the island, 
with a view to the more extensive protection of 
our commerce. v\^^ 

The General Greene arrived at Cape Francois j 
early in October, when Captain Perry received a 
communication from Mr. Edward Stevens, at that 
time our consul-general in St. Domingo, informing 
him of the state of affairs in the island, and point- 
ing out the line of conduct necessary for the pro- 
tection of our commerce. In the prosecution of 
the civil war then raging in the island, between 
General Toussaint L'Ouverture, who commanded 
the armies operating under the name of the French 
Republic, but in reality controlled only by himself, 
and General Rigaud, the former had signalized 
himself by a friendly course towards neutral pow- 
ers, and a studious regard to the laws of hospitality 
with respect to the merchant vessels visiting the 
ports within his control. Rigaud, on the contrary, 
carried on, through his armed barges, a predatory 
warfare, not merely on the vessels of the island be- 
longing to the ports under the jurisdiction of Tous- 
saint, but also on all neutral vessels approaching 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 43 

the coast. On this account, it became the policy 
of neutrals to protect and encourage General Tous- 
saint, whose upright and honourable character in- 
spired unbounded confidence, and oppose Rigaud. 
With this view the American and English consuls 
joined in granting passports to the cruisers fitted 
out by Toussaint, which, though wearing the 
French flag and owning the French allegiance, 
were exempted from capture, to which other 
French vessels were subject. The government 
of the United States had approved of the course 
adopted by their consul, and Captain Perry was 
ordered not to capture or molest any of the vessels 
fitted out by Toussaint for the purpose of defending 
his coasts against the barges of Rigaud, so long as 
they should continue to respect the commerce of 
the United States, but to render what aid he was 
able in putting down Rigaud. 

While cruising in the neighbourhood of Cape 
Tiburon, on the ninth of February, 1800, Captain 
Perry discovered a number of Rigaud's cruisers an- 
chored under protection of three forts on the coast. 
He immediately stood in and anchored under the 
forts, which, in less than thirty minutes, were si- 
lenced, with the loss of a number killed on the 
part of the enemy ; the General Greene having 
only received a few shots in her hull, and some 
trifling injury in her rigging. The boats of the 
General Greene were speedily got out, in readiness 



44 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

to take possession of the vessels at anchor, when, 
a large ship being seen in the offing which had 
the appearance of a French frigate, it became ne- 
cessary to get the ship under way, in order to avoid 
being placed between two fires. Chase was given 
to the strange sail, which proved to be a captured 
French vessel in the service of England. 

Soon after this occurrence. Captain Perry re- 
ceived an urgent request from General Toussaint 
that he would proceed with the General Greene 
off the port of Jaquemel, which he was then be- 
sieging. As this was the stronghold of Rigaud, 
from which he despatched his cruisers and into 
which they brought their prizes, Captain Perry 
readily complied with the request. He proceeded 
off the port, and not only so strictly blockaded it 
as to intercept the entry of supplies and produce a 
great scarcity, but took part in the active opera- 
tions of the siege. The fire of the General Greene 
compelled the enemy at length to evacuate their 
strongest position, and led to the surrender of the 
garrison, consisting of five thousand men. The 
reduction of this place, from which the commerce 
of the United States had been seriously annoyed, 
and which was considered at home of great im- 
portance, was attributed by General Toussaint en- 
tirely to Captain Perry's co-operation. He return- 
ed him sincere and repeated thanks for his assist- 
ance, assured him of the lively gratitude he should 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 45 

ever feel to him and to his country, and of his firm 
determination to extend his friendship and protec- 
tion, on all occasions, to the citizens of the United 
States ; a determination which he ever most faith- 
fully observed. 

After the fall of Jaquemel, Captain Periy pros- 
ecuted the cruise which he had been ordered to 
make round the island of St. Domingo, which ter- 
minated early in April at Cape Francois, the port 
from which he had set out. Here he fell in with 
Commodore Talbot in the Constitution frigate, and 
was much annoyed by the commodore's taking 
from him twenty-four of his best men, and sending 
seventeen invalids to supply their places. Cap- 
tain Perry made the conduct of the commodore 
the subject of complaint in his report to the secre- 
tary of the navy. He argued forcibly against the 
unfairness of ridding one ship of disease at the ex- 
pense of another ; and expressed the belief, that 
the removal of so many of his crew from the ship 
for which they had entered would have an injuri- 
ous effect on the recruiting service in Rhode Isl- 
and. He stated that many of his crew had fami- 
lies, or were the sons of substantial farmers, whose 
connexions looked to him for their safe return, and 
that, should any accident happen to them from 
their being turned over to another ship, or dis- 
charged at a distance from their homes, it would 
not only give ground of complaint against the 



46 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

commander, but excite clamour and prejudice 
against the navy. The fact is interesting, as show- 
ing, at this early period in the existence of our 
navy, the want of a higher grade of officers to 
command in chief, \\dth a fairness which can never 
be expected from one who is at the same time 
captain of a particular ship, and also as giving an 
insight into the composition of our crews. 

An order had been received from the secretary 
of the navy for the General Greene to proceed off 
the mouth of the Mississippi, in order to receive on 
board General "Wilkinson and family, and trans- 
port them to a northern port of the United States. 
By direction of Commodore Talbot, the General 
Greene now sailed on this service, and arrived 
off the Balize about the twentieth of April. Af- 
ter a delay of several weeks, she sailed for New- 
port on the tenth of May, giving convoy by the 
way to an American brig bound to Havana. When 
off that port she fell in with a British line-of-battle 
ship, which, when near, fired a shot at the mer- 
chant brig to bring her to. The brig, in obedience 
to the orders of Captain Perry, paid no regard to 
the signal from the British ship, but continued her 
course. As the wind was light, the British cap- 
tain despatched a boat to board the brig ; but, as 
the boat approached. Captain Perry fired a shot 
ahead of her. This brought the boat alongside 
of the General Greene, and the line-of-battle ship 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 47 

at the same time bore down, and, when within 
hail, her captain demanded why his boat had been 
fired on. Captain Perry rephed, that it was to 
prevent her from boarding the American brig, 
which was under his convoy and protection. The 
British captain rejoined that it was very strange 
that one of his majesty's seventy-four gun ships 
could not board an American merchant brig. 
Captain Perry replied, "If she were a first-rate 
ship, she should not do so to the dishonour of my 
flag!" This memorable answer embraces the 
whole principle and profession of naval honour. 
It was worthy of Captain Perry, of his country, 
and of the future reputation of his son. 

The foregoing incident would show that the 
school was a good one in which young Perry re- 
ceived his first lessons of naval honour. He made 
rapid progress in the attainment of professional 
knowledge, improved himself by dihgent reading, 
and, as opportunity occurred, by intercourse with 
society ; and, while preserving a dignity of deport- 
ment beyond his years, by his gentleness and ami- 
ability v/on the affectionate attachment of all 
around him. His earhest letter which has been 
preserved, and the only one of this period extant, 
is now before the writer. It is brief, sententious, 
and well expressed ; exhibits a strong attachment 
to his brothers and sisters, a respectful affection to 
his mother, to whom it is addressed, and a lively 
solicitude for her welfare. 



48 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

On the arrival of the General Greene at New- 
port, towards the close of May, orders were re- 
ceived from the secretary of the navy to pay off 
the whole of her crew, except such a small num- 
ber as might be necessary to take care of the ship 
while she was undergoing repairs. She was or- 
dered to be prepared for sea with all possible de- 
spatch ; and Captain Perry was directed to advise 
the secretary when the ship should be ready to re- 
ceive her crew, that the necessary orders might be 
given for recruiting it. The secretary urged Cap- 
tain Perry to hasten his preparations by the com- 
plimentary assurance that the services of the Gen- 
eral Greene had been too important to be dispensed 
with a moment longer than might be necessary to 
re-equip her for sea. 

Soon after, the negotiations for the settlement of 
our difficulties with France, which had been for 
some time going on at Paris, assumed an appear- 
ance of pacific termination. No farther measures 
were therefore taken to increase our naval force 
abroad, and the sailing of the General Greene 
was delayed, with that of other ships about to 
put to sea. Early in the following year, the 
treaty which had been agreed upon in Paris was 
ratified by the Senate of the United States ; and, 
very soon after, a change of administration hav- 
ing occurred, which brought Mr. Jefferson into 
office, on principles opposed to the navy, and to 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 49 

expenditures for almost every liberal object con- 
nected with the permanent welfare of the country, 
it was determined to reduce the navy nearly to the 
condition in which our difficulties with France had 
found it. The cruisers of all rates were reduced 
m number, by selling the excess, from forty-two to 
thirteen, and the officers were discharged from the 
service in even greater proportions. Of forty-two 
post-captains who had abandoned their pursuits, 
jmd many of them sacrificed their fortune, to come 
forward in defence of their country's rights, only 
nine were retained in the navy. The masters' 
commandant were dismissed in mass. 

Captain Perry was among the large majority 
excluded from the service; and the circumstance 
was not a little painful to him, though announced 
by the secretary of the navy in the following terms, 
as well suited as any other to sooth the annoyance 
inseparable from such a notification. " The act 
providing for the peace establishment of the navy 
of the United States has imposed on the president 
a painful duty. It directs him to select nine gen- 
tlemen from among the captains of the navy of 
the United States, and to permit the remaining 
commanders to retire from public service with the 
advance of four months' extra pay. I have deem- 
ed it a duty, therefore, as early as possible to in- 
form you, that you will be among those whose ser- 
vices, however reluctantly, will be dispensed with. 
E 



50 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

Permit me to assure you that the president has a 
just sense of the services rendered by you to your 
country, and that I am, with sentiments of respect, 
your most obedient servant." 

Chance, which presided more at this reduction 
than judgment or discretion, so willed it that the 
reduction was much less thorough among the infe- 
rior classes of officers, and out of nearly three hun- 
dred and fifty midshipmen, upward of one hundred 
and fifty were retained to perform duty under the 
nine remaining captains. Fortunately for the hon- 
our of the country and the future reputation of its 
flag, the name of Oliver Perry figured among those 
of the midshipmen thus retained in the service. 

Our difficulties with France were scarcely at an 
end, and our naval establishment reduced, before 
the unprotected state of our commerce created for 
us new enemies. In order to procure a suspension 
of the depredations on our commerce heretofore 
committed by the Barbary corsairs, our govern- 
ment had been guilty of the weakness of bribing 
the various regencies by an annual present of arms 
and other goods, and in some cases of money. 
On a recent occasion, the Dey of Algiers had car- 
ried his insolence so far as to compel the com- 
mander of the American ship of war which had 
brought out the tribute to proceed to Constantino- 
ple with a present which he, in turn, was desirous 
of making to the sultan. Having thus consented 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 51 

to pay tribute to Algiers, and tamely suffered one 
of our national vessels to be impressed into the 
service of a barbarian chief, to be employed in the 
degrading task of carrying tribute to a third pow- 
er — having also paid tribute to the Bey of Tunis, 
the Bashaw of Tripoli reasonably enough came to 
the conclusion that he was entitled to be treated 
with equal consideration, and determined, at any 
rate, to resort to similar means of extorting what 
he conceived to be his due. The custom of ma- 
king presents and paying tribute had long been 
acquiesced in by the weak powers of the opposite 
contment, whose unprotected commerce covered 
the Mediterranean. The bashaw, after setting 
forth the various grievances that he had suffered 
from the United States, and especially the superior 
value of the presents which had been made to Al- 
giers and Tunis, at length, towards the close of 

1800, formally announced to the American consul, 
that if he did not receive a present in money from 
the United States within six months, he would 
commence hostilities against our commerce. 

Our recent naval successes in the struggle 
against France had prepared the country to re- 
sist this insolent demand, and arrangements were 
forthwith commenced for refitting and recommis- ^^ 
aoning our dismantled ships, i^ In the summer of \j 

1801, Commodore Dale was despatched to the ' 
Mediterranean with the President, Philadelphia, 



62 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

and Essex frigates, and schooner Enterprise. Com- 
modore Dale found that the bashaw, in fulfilment 
of his threat, had, at the expiration of the six 
months, caused the flagstaff of our consulate to 
be cut down, the symbol among those piratical re- 
gencies of a declaration of war. As Commodore 
Dale's orders restricted him to a defensive course, 
he confined his operations to blockading the Tri- 
politan cruisers in their own port, and in neutral 
ports where they happened to find them ; thus 
the Tripolitan admiral having been found by the 
squadron with a ship and brig in the Bay of Gib- 
raltar, they were there blockaded by a part of the 
squadron. Only one encounter took place at sea 
during the cruise of this squadron, and this was 
most glorious for our arms. It was between the 
Enterprise, of twelve guns, commanded by Lieu- 
tenant Sterret, and the Tripoli, a ship of fourteen 
guns. The action continued for three hours, at, 
the end of which time fifty of the corsair's crew 
were either killed or wounded out of eighty which 
composed her comphment. The president being 
under the impression that the Constitution did not 
authorize him, in the prosecution of this defensive 
warfare, to make captures, had ordered that no 
vessels should be taken from the enemy, and the ■-. 
Tripoli was accordingly disarmed and set at lib- ,' 
erty. -^ 

Early in 1802 laws were passed by Congress 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 63 

empowering the executive to make use of every 
means of reducing Tripoli to peace. The term of 
enUstment for seamen was judiciously extended 
from one to two years, and a more numerous 
squadron of ships was fitted out, to take the place 
of the one of which the term of service had now 
expired. This squadron consisted of the Chesa- 
peake, Constellation, New-York, Adams, and John 
Adams frigates, and schooner Enterprise. It was 
commanded by Commodore Richard V. Morris. On 
board the Adams, commanded by Captain Hugh 
G. Campbell, Oliver Perry again embarked as 
midshipman, after a little more than a year that 
he had remained detached from active service. 
The Adams was lying in Newport, which circum- 
stance probably fixed Oliver's destination to that 
particular ship, and laid the foundation of a sin- 
cere and lively friendship towards him on the part 
of Commodore Campbell, which ended only with 
the life of that valuable officer, whose name con- 
tinues in the service to be the object of veneration. 
The Adams sailed from Newport in June, and 
arrived at Gibraltar towards the middle of July. 
Here she fell in with the commodore, who had his 
flag on board the Chesapeake. The Adams, after 
having made a short cruise to Malaga with con- 
voy, was left at Gibraltar to watch the two Tripol- 
itan vessels in that harbour, and the commodore 
proceeded up the Mediterranean with the Chesa- 
£2 



54 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

peake, New-York, John Adams, and Enterprise, 
having a number of merchant vessels under con- 
voy, intending, after seeing them into the ports to 
which they were bound, to appear off TripoH and 
commence his offensive operations. By the time, 
however, that he had reached Malta, the provis- 
ions of his squadron were getting short ; and, on 
sailing for Tripoli, having encountered an adverse 
gale of many days' duration, he bore up, and, run- 
ning down for Tunis, touched there and at Algiers, 
and subsequently reached Gibraltar again towards 
the close of March. At Gibraltar the commodore 
shifted his flag from the Chesapeake to the New- 
York, and the Chesapeake returned to the United 
States. 

After so long and wearisome a detention at 
Gibraltar in blockading the Tripolitan cruiser — re- 
lieved, however, for Oliver by one redeeming cir- 
cumstance, his promotion to an acting lieutenancy 
on his birthday, at the early age of seventeen — the 
Adams was now, to the great satisfaction of all on 
board of her, ordered to proceed up the Mediter- 
ranean with a convoy of ten sail, and subsequent- 
ly to meet the commodore at Malta, from which 
place the whole squadron was to go to Tripoli, and 
active operations against the enemy were forthwith 
to commence. The ship touched at Malaga, Ali- 
cant, and Barcelona in Spain, and, after remaining 
a few days at the latter place, proceeded onward 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. OU 

with the residue of her convoy to Leghorn and Na- 
ples. Young Perry seized with avidity the oppor- 
tunity thus afforded him of seeing something of the 
cities which the Adams visited; and the indulgence 
of his captain, to whose partiality he had owed the 
pleasing circumstance of so agreeable a present on 
his last birthday, enabled him to make excursions 
to various interesting points in the neighbourhood 
of the ports at which they stopped, from which he 
derived both pleasure and advantage. 

During the month of May, the squadron, con- 
sisting of the New-York, John Adams, Adams, 
and Enterprise, joined company at the rendezvous 
at Malta, and soon after sailed for Tripoli. In ap- 
proaching that city, a number of merchant vessels 
were discovered making for the port, protected by 
a flotilla of gunboats. The squadron at once gave 
chase, and succeeded in cutting the vessels off 
from the port, but not in hindering them from get- 
ting into another small harbour adjoining to the 
city. The vessels, being small, were soon unladen 
and hauled up on the beach, and breastworks were 
at once thrown up to defend them, the wheat 
which composed their cargo being used for the 
purpose. A large stone building adjacent to the 
Dank was hastily fortified and filled with soldiery. 
The gunboats, by the aid of their sweeps, had been 
able to escape along shore, and get within the 
mole under cover of the batteries. Lieutenant 



56 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

David Porter, then first lieutenant of the New- 
York, volunteered to go in v^ith the boats of the 
squadron during the night and destroy the vessels 
on the beach. The commodore, while declining 
to accept his services for the night, as the darkness 
would prevent the co-operation of the ships, de- 
termined to attempt the enterprise on the follow- 
ing morning. 

Accordingly, the boats were despatched with a 
strong force from all the ships. They pulled gal- 
lantly in under a heavy fire of musketry from the 
Moors and Arabs stationed behind the breast- 
works, and imperfectly sustained by the fire of the 
ships, on account of their distance from the shore. 
In defiance of the sharp fire of the enemy, our gal- 
lant seamen landed under their very breastworks, 
which were so near that the unarmed rabble col- 
lected behind the combatants assailed our men 
with stones, and succeeded in firing the vessels on 
the beach. They then returned to their boats, and 
pulled out through the midst of the enemy's fire to 
their ships. Although the vessels were in flames 
before our men left them, the Tripolitans succeeded 
in preserving most of them by great exertions. 
Twelve of our men were either killed or wounded, 
and the loss of the enemy was supposed to have 
been more considerable. Lieutenant Porter, who 
so gallantly led the enterprise, was among the 
wounded. It is not known that young Perry cer-* 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 57 

tainly took part in this daring exploit; but his rank 
as a young lieutenant on board one of the ships 
in the squadron, and the heroic spirit which ever 
characterized him, render it very unlikely that he 
should have been absent from this scene of danger 
and of glory. 

Soon after, an effort was made to destroy the 
fleet of gunboats which were anchored at the en- 
trance of the harbour, between the mole and a 
reef of rocks which formed the western side of the 
channel. On the morning fixed for the attack, a 
very light breeze prevailed, and only the John 
Adams, commanded by Captain J. Rodgers, was 
able to reach her station and engage the enemy. 
The gunboats retired from the fire of the John 
Adams behind the mole, and towards nightfall the 
ship withdrew into the offing. On the following 
day the commodore made an effort to arrange our 
difficulties by means of negotiation ; but, as there 
had been nothing in the manner in which the war 
had hitherto been carried on to give these barba- 
rians a very formidable idea of our naval power, 
the attempted negotiation was attended with no pa- 
cific result. Soon after the commodore sailed for 
Malta, leaving Captain Rodgers in the John Adams 
to prosecute the blockade, with the aid of Captain 
Campbell in the Adams, and Lieutenant Isaac Hull 
in the schooner Enterprise. Towards the close of 
June the John Adams had an engagement with 



58 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

an enemy's ship of twenty-two guns, which had 
left Tripoli in the night and attempted to escape 
the blockade ; being discovered by the Enterprise, 
she was pursued into shoal water by the Enterprise 
and John Adams, and compelled to anchor near 
the shore, where parties of cavalry collected for 
her defence, and the fleet of gunboats also hast- 
ened from Tripoli to her assistance. After a spir- 
ited action, the battery of the corsair was silencecl, 
and her crew jumped overboard and swam ashore. 
Preparations were making to get the boats out and 
take possession of the prize, when she blew up. 

Shortly after this occurrence, the commodore, 
having received information of hostile operations 
against our commerce on the part of the Algerines 
and Tunisians, recalled all the ships from Tripoli 
and raised the blockade. He collected his squad- 
ron in Malta, from whence he made a visit to the 
Italian coast. After visiting Sicily, Naples, and 
several of the neighbouring ports, the John Adams 
was despatched with a convoy of American ves- 
sels down the Mediterranean, while the Adams 
cruised down on the Barbary side, touching at the 
various ports. On the reunion of the squadron 
again at Gibraltar, Commodore Morris found let- 
ters recalling him from his command, which tem- 
porarily devolved on Captain Rodgers, who hoisted 
his flag on board the New-York, in expectation of 
the speedy arrival of Commodore Edward Preble, 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 59 

■who had been appointed to prosecute the war, and 
was daily looked for in the Constitution. Captain 
Campbell replaced Captain Rodgers on board the 
John Adams, while Commodore Morris proceeded 
in the Adams to the United States, where he ar- 
rived towards the close of November, 1803. 

After an absence of a year and a half, young 
Perry returned again to his family, which he 
found established in Newport. He now devoted 
himself earnestly to the study of mathematics and 
astronomy, and the general improvement of his 
mind. His leisure hours were passed in the soci- 
ety of the intelligent and refined. Those who re- 
member him at this period represent him as quick 
and excitable in his temper, but not disposed to 
unreasonable anger, nof implacable in his resent- 
ments. He was a faithful and generous friend, 
and ready to go any length to serve those to whom 
he was attached. He appeared exceedingly well 
in conversation, and the value of his judicious and 
well-timed remarks was enhanced by the modesty 
and absence of all pretension with which they 
were expressed. He was fond of the society of 
ladies, and his good looks and unusually grace- 
ful demeanour fitted him to appear most advan- 
tageously in it. To these social qualifications 
w^ere added a fine taste for music, and an uncom- 
monly skilful performance on the flute. It is re- 
marked of him that few young men had so nice a 



60 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

sense of honour with regard to female character. 
He frowned indignantly on any who trifled with 
the affections of a lady, and his own deportment 
towards the sex was courteous, circumspect, and 
deferential. 

These elegant tastes naturally involved an aver- 
sion to dissipation generally. The only extrava- 
gance in which he indulged was occasioned by his 
fondness for horses, in one of the finest of which 
that he could meet with when on shore he usually 
invested his surplus pay. He had, indeed, been 
accustomed to horses from his childhood, and was 
a fearless and elegant rider. To this accomplish- 
ment he added, in our country, the more question- 
able one of playing an admirable game of bill- 
iards; but, as he never had any taste for gam- 
bling, his visits to the billiard-room were attended 
with no bad results. He is said to have fenced 
dexterously, and been generally skilful in the use 
of arms. Such was the character, tastes, and oc- 
cupations of young Perry as he was verging from 
youth towards the season of manhood. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 61 



CHAPTER m. 

Prosecution of Tripolitan War under Prehle. — Pe?- 
ry^s anxiety to take part in it. — Equipment of four 
Frigates. — Perry ordered to the Constellation. — 
Joins her at Washington. — Mingles in Society. — 
Sails for the Mediterranean. — Prehle superseded. 
— The War loses its chivalrous Character. — Expe- 
dition of General Eaton. — Its partial Success. — 
Perry transferred to the Nautilus. — Commodore 
Rodgers succeeds to the Command. — Concludes 
Peace. — Visits Tunis.— Confirms the friendship 
of that Power. — The Nautilus visits Algiers. — A 
change of Administration in that Regency. — Visit 
to Gibraltar. — Perry removed to the Constitution. 
— His Character as an Officer. — Returns home in 
the Essex. — Description of him by a Shipmate. 

Perry was not destined to a long enjoyment of 
the tranquil occupations of his residence in New- 
port. The command of Commodore Preble in the 
Mediterranean had been distinguished by a more 
vigorous system of operations than that of any of 
his predecessors. The whole period of his pres- 
ence before Tripoli had been signalized by a series 
of bombardments and boat-attacks, conceived in 
the highest spirit of naval enterprise, and executed 
with a brilliant daring which has never been sur- 
F 



f)2 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

passed. The boat-attacks, planned and executed 
under the eye of Preble, and supported by the 
guns of the Constitution and the small vessels 
composing- the little squadron, partook, indeed, of a 
character of heroism which call to mind the an- 
cient struggles of Christians and Saracens in those 
same waters. The hand-to-hand struggling, the 
hair-breadth escapes, the brilliant self-devotion to 
succour or to save, all invest this short period of 
Preble's command with a chivalrous and heroic 
interest of the highest stamp. 

It was the fortune of Perry to have been at- 
tached to the Mediterranean station both immedi 
ately before and immediately after the command 
of Commodore Preble. Had he been with him 
throughout the brilliant period of his service, he 
would have associated his name earlier than he 
eventually did with the glory of a Preble, a De- 
catur, and a Somers ; he would either have cov- 
ered himself with equal renown, or found, hke 
some of the heroes of that war, an early grave. 

Intelligence of the earliest achievements of Com- 
modore Preble's command had led young Perry to 
weary of his present professional inactivity, though 
in itself not destitute for him of pleasure and im- 
provement. He desired to be again in the Medi- 
terranean ; and the loss of the Philadelphia, which 
left the Constitution the only heavy ship befor*^ 
Tripoli, determined the government, which wg 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 63 

more than ever resolved to prosecute this war to a 
successful issue, to fit out four additional frigates. 
The President, Congress, Constellation, and Essex 
were the ships selected, and, as there were only 
three captains in the service junior to Commodore 
Preble, it was most unwisely determined to super- 
sede him in the command. The government 
might have escaped from the dilemma by making 
a single additional captain, or it might have de- 
ducted one ship from the number of its re-enforce- 
ment, so as to have left Preble in the command. 
It could not discover that the magic was in the in- 
dividual. The predecessors of Preble had all the 
advantage that could be derived from the array of 
superior numbers. Preble had the true desire of 
glory; the power of adapting his means to the end; 
the cool, unbiased judgment, which could weigh 
the difficulties which presented themselves in his 
path, and justly estimate the chances of success. 

The Constellation, one of the ships of the new 
squadron, was to be commanded by Captain H. G. 
Campbell. The partiality of Perry's old com- 
mander and friend readily induced him to procure 
Perry to be ordered to his ship as one of his lieu- 
tenants. The ship was fitted out at Washington. 
This was young Perry's first visit to that part of 
the country. In the intervals during which his 
professional duties permitted him to be absent 
from the ship, he visited, by invitation, several 



64 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

families of distinction in the neighbourhood, into 
which he was received with kindness and hospi- 
tahty. 

The inteUigence, urbanity, frankness, and unaf- 
fected good-nature which he everywhere met with, 
impressed him most favourably towards the inhab- 
itants, and from the earnestness with which his so- 
ciety was sought, the favourable impression was 
evidently mutual. His youth and uncommon share 
of good looks, enhanced by his intelligence and 
modesty, were qualities that would have made 
him circulate anywhere, and it is not be wondered 
at that the handsome young officer was no less a 
favourite with the young ladies of the neighbour- 
hood than with their discerning sires. His confi- 
dential letters of this period to his mother inti- 
mate the belief that, were he disposed to make his 
fortune by marriage, the chances for success would 
not be inconsiderable. His youth, however, he 
considered an objection to his taking upon himself 
so weighty an obligation. 

Early in July the Constellation left Washing- 
ton, and soon after proceeded to the Mediterra- 
nean. She arrived off Tripoli in September, in 
company with the President, bearing the broad 
pendant of Commodore S. Barron. As the Con- 
stitution remained on the station. Commodore 
Preble having returned home in the John Adams, 
which had arrived shortly before as a storeship. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 65 

the force under the command of Commodore Bar- 
ron, consisting of five frigates and five stout brigs, 
was the most formidable squadron which had ever 
been united under the command of an American 
officer. With a single frigate, and a few clumsy 
and ill-equipped gunboats. Commodore Preble 
had made repeated attacks on the forts, batteries, 
and flotilla. With the present force, the master- 
spirit of Preble, had it been intrusted with a pro- 
longed command, would have quickly reduced 
Tripoli to ruins or unconditional submission. No- 
thing, however, beyond a blockade, which the for- 
mer force could have equally w^ell effected, was 
now achieved ; and Perry and other young men, 
who had come to the Mediterranean with their 
imaginations fired by the brilliant heroism which 
had been so recently displayed in the arena which 
now lay before them, were condemned only to see 
near at hand the heroes that were left from so 
many chivalrous encounters decked with the hon- 
ours that they had won for themselves, to look 
upon the scenes which they had illustrated and 
ennobled by their valour, and to admire deeds 
which they were not permitted to imitate. 

Subsequently to the arrival of Commodore Bar- 
ron, some operations against the power of the 
reigning Bashaw of Tripoli, exceedingly romantic 
in their character, took place on the land, with 
which the Constellation is believed to have co-op- 
F2 



66 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

erated. The reigning bashaw did not succeed reg- 
ularly to the sovereignty, but by usurpation, after 
having deposed his elder brother. The deposed 
prince had the good fortune to escape with his 
life, and, after many wanderings, took refuge in 
Egypt among the Mamelukes, by whom he was 
hospitably received. Mr. Eaton, our consul for 
many years in Tunis, having formerly been an 
officer in the revolutionary army, conceived the 
project of making use of the deposed prince to 
create an insurrectionary army, which should co- 
operate with our squadron before Tripoli for the 
overthrow of the reigning bashaw. The govern- 
ment adopted his plan on his arriving in the Uni- 
ted States to unfold it, and he was sent out with 
Commodore Barron, with orders for the latter to 
aid him in his enterprise. Mr. Eaton was accord- 
ingly despatched to Alexandria, accompanied by 
a lieutenant of marines and two midshipmen, who 
volunteered to take part in this wild expedition. 

Mr. Eaton lost no time in placing himself in 
communication with the deposed bashaw. A nu- 
merous party of adherents of the dethroned prince, 
refugees from Tripoli, and adventurers of all na- 
tions, amounting to about five hundred men, was 
speedily assembled, and Mr. Eaton assumed the 
command with the title of general. Traversing 
the desert, their baggage being carried by camels, 
this singular assemblage arrived, towards the close 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 67 

of April, before Dearne, a seaport town within the 
pachahc of Tripoli. Here the general fell in with 
the American brig Argus, and schooners Nautilus 
and Hornet ; and, having received supplies of arms 
and ammunition, and the vessels having taken their 
stations so as to aid in battering the town, the 
forces of General Eaton marched to the assault, 
and, though resisted from behind the walls first, 
and subsequently from house to house, by more 
than threefold numbers, they gallantly made good 
their way into the town. An army from Tripoli 
not long after appeared before the walls, and made 
several desperate attacks in the hope of recovering 
the stronghold. They were, however, gallantly 
repulsed by General Eaton ; and the Constellation 
having opportunely appeared in the harbour at the 
close of the last attack, the enemy was thrown 
into consternation, broke up the siege, and aban- 
doned their camp, w^ith the greater portion of their 
heavy baggage. 

About this time, the schooner Nautilus being in 
want of an officer, young Perry was ordered to 
her by Captain Campbell as first lieutenant, until 
the pleasure of the commodore should be known 
as to the appointment. 

Flushed with his successes at Dearne, and hav- 
ing established the lawful pacha in possession of 
the second province of the pachalic, General Ea- 
ton now urged Commodore Barron to furnish him 



4^ AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

with such supplies and assistance from the squad- 
ron as he thought would enable him to show him- 
self before the w^alls of Tripoli with every pros- 
pect of a speedy termination of the war. The 
3ommodore, however, declined lending any more 
extensive aid than he had hitherto afforded, on 
the ground that, if the ex-pacha possessed the in- 
fluence in the regency to which he laid claim, he 
was already in a situation to recover his authority. 
Soon after. Commodore Barron retired, on account 
of his low state of health, from the command of 
the squadron, which devolved again on Commo- 
dore J. Rodgers ; and, not long after, a treaty of 
peace was concluded, in which the claim for trib- 
ute was abandoned by Tripoli, and ransom paid 
for the American prisoners remaining in possession 
of the regency after the exchange had been made 
for the Tripolitans taken by us during the war. 
This negotiation brought General Eaton's roman- 
tic expedition to a close, finding him still at 
Dearne, where, though he had advanced no far- 
ther, he had been able to maintain himself against 
every effort made to dislodge him. 

On the conclusion of peace with Tripoli, the 
squadron proceeded to Tunis, the government of 
which had made some warlike demonstrations, in 
consequence of our vessels off Tripoli having cap- 
tured a Tunisian cruiser, which, with two prizes in 
company, had been detected in an attempt to 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 69 

break the blockade. The bey had threatened our 
consul with war unless the vessels were instantly 
restored, and had furthermore declared that the 
arrival of our squadron in his waters would be 
looked upon by him as a commencement of hos- 
tilities. This threat did not prevent Commodore 
Rodgers from appearing off Tunis, where his spir- 
ited conduct, and the formidable armament, con- 
sisting in all of thirteen vessels, gunboats included, 
by which it was enforced, soon brought the bashaw 
into a more pacific mood. He readily consented 
to continue at peace on the terms of friendship 
heretofore existing between the two powers, and 
so far moderated his demand for the immediate 
restoration of the prizes as to express a wish to 
send a minister to Washington, to address his re- 
quests directly to the president. In this wish he 
was indulged, and his minister soon after embarked 
for the United States in the frigate Congress, com- 
manded by Decatur. 

At this conjuncture, the Constellation, in which 
young Perry had come out, returned to the United 
States. Being desirous of seeing more active ser- 
vice, and to obtain farther practice in schooner- 
sailing, he remained on board the Nautilus. This 
vessel was now despatched to Algiers, where she 
arrived at the moment of one of those frequent 
insurrections by which the form of government 
was wont to be summarily changed in that regen- 



10 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

cy. The dey had rendered himself obnoxious both 
to the people and the soldiery by his extortion and 
cruelty. These broke out in revolt, and, headed 
by a captain of one of the cruisers, presented them- 
selves at the castle, announced to the dey his de- 
position, and told him to fly immediately to a 
mosque if he would save his life. The dey went 
forth for the purpose, attended by his vizier, and 
both were cut to pieces as they cleared the outer 
gate of the castle. The heads of his adherents, 
and those who had grown rich under his favour, 
fell profusely on every side ; and, at the end of an 
hour, a new dey was installed, salutes were fired, 
and all was once more as noiseless and tranquil as 
despotism could desire. 

From Algiers the Nautilus proceeded to Gib- 
raltar, to meet the commodore's despatches and 
procure supplies. In a letter to his mother from 
this place, dated in September, 1805, young Per- 
ry gives the particulars of his recent visit to Al- 
giers. He also mentions that an army of fifteen 
thousand Spaniards were encamped before the 
Rock of Gibraltar. They were speedily to be re- 
enforced by an equal number of French, when 
they were to make an attack on the fortress which 
Napoleon was so anxious to possess. Perry men- 
tions that the officers of the garrison were very 
confident in their ability to resist the assailants, 
and gave it as his opinion that their confidence 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 71 

was well founded. He mentions that he had been 
very kindly noticed by the commodore on the oc- 
casion of his last visit to the flag-ship, and had 
been offered orders, on the return of the Nautilus 
to the rendezvous at Syracuse, either to the eigh- 
teen-gun brig Siren as first lieutenant, or to the 
commodore's own ship, the Constitution. His let- 
ters manifest, as in his younger days, the most af- 
fectionate interest in his parents and brothers and 
sisters. His expressions of endearment are more 
than usually tender, and his eagerness to obtain 
information as to the welfare of those whom he 
loved extreme. They manifest, moreover, a tender 
solicitude, not unsuited to his age, for the welfare 
of fair friends, concerning whom his mother had 
failed to give him information. 

When the Nautilus again fell in with the flag- 
ship. Perry was ordered by the commodore to the 
Constitution. The commodore had been attracted 
by his appearance, manners, and conversation ; and 
in desiring to have him transferred to his own ship, 
had felt some anxiety lest the tall boy — for in age 
and appearance he was little more — should fail to 
come up to that high standard of seamanship and 
officer-like bearing which the commodore ever 
exhibited in himself and required in his officers. 
His misgivings in this respect were, however, 
soon set at rest; and he found that young Perry 
had so well employed his six years of almost un- 



72 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

interrupted service, that he was an excellent sea- 
man, while his manner as an officer was in all 
respects admirable, calm, gentlemanly, dignified, 
and self-possessed. He was at this time, as ever 
after, rigorous in the observance of that etiquette 
which is one of the most useful barriers against 
irregularity and insubordination. 

One of the earliest occasions of his attracting 
the attention of the commodore was on his ma- 
king a complaint of a want of observance on 
board the flag-ship of the customary mode of re- 
ceiving officers of his grade. This occurred while 
he was first lieutenant of the Nautilus. It had 
been the subject of remark, that the lieutenants of 
the other vessels were not always received with 
the usual honours, the boatswain's mates' piping 
the side, the side-boys laying over to hold out the 
man-ropes, and the lieutenant of the watch at the 
gangway to receive his equal in grade. The lieu- 
tenants of the small vessels, whose sense of their 
dignity is usually in the inverse ratio of the size 
of their vessel, were not a little shocked at the 
omission. Young Perry said that the neglect 
ought to be remedied 3 and, accordingly, on the 
first occasion of his going on board the flag-ship, 
finding that the omission took place in his case, 
and that the complaint was true, stated the cir- 
cumstance immediately to the commodore, who 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 73 

caused the proper honours to be thereafter studi- 
ously observed. 

Perry's manner as an officer, and mode of car- 
rying on duty at this early period, has obtained 
the highest eulogium that it could receive from 
one at that time his junior, the late Captain John 
Orde Creighton, himself so distinguished for his 
elegant manner of working ship. He was accus- 
tomed to speak of the effect produced upon him 
when he first heard young Perry manoeuvring the 
Constitution as officer of the deck j the admirable 
skill which he displayed being enhanced by the 
ease, grace, and dignity of his manner, and the 
matchless clearness and melody of his voice. The 
intonations of young Perry remained long after 
upon his ear, and his whole manner and deport- 
ment became the object of his emulation. 

In the course of the cruise in the Constitution, 
Perry so effectually secured the approbation and 
kind feelings of Commodore Rodgers, that when, 
after the satisfactory settlement of our various 
difficulties with the Barbary powers, that officer 
prepared, towards the close of the summer of 
1806, to return home, and shifted his flag for that 
purpose to the Essex, he took his young friend 
with him to that ship, in which he returned to the 
United States, where he arrived in October. On 
board the Essex Perry found in Mr. Daniel Mur- 
ray a brother officer of congenial spirit, with 
G 



74 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

whom he formed a warm and lasting friendship. 
From this gentleman we are able to obtain the 
following slight reminiscence of the homeward 
voyage of the Essex, and of the character and 
manners of Perry at this period : " My intercourse 
with him previously had been shght and casual ; 
although on the same station, we had rarely been 
thrown together. On examining the dates of our 
commissions, I found that he ranked me, and he 
came home second lieutenant of the Essex. Du- 
ring our passage home, which was a very long 
one, within a few days of two months, I had great 
pleasure in cultivating Perry's acquaintance. His 
fine temper, gentle manners, and manly bearing, 
soon attracted and attached me to him strongly, 
and I believe our regard to each other was as sin- 
cere as it was lasting, having been uninterrupted 
to his death. I regret that I can lend but little 
assistance towards a minute narration of the inci- 
dents of the first few years of his service. There 
can be no doubt that they were well, and, I should 
think, unusually well employed ; for his age when 
in the Essex could not have been much more than 
twenty-one, and he was then an excellent seaman, 
an accomplished officer, and a well-bred gentle- 
man. His subsequent glorious career was just 
what I had anticipated." 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 75 



CHAPTER IV. 

Perry resumes his Studies at Newport. — Falls in 
Love. — Is employed in huilding Gunboats. — Is en. 
gaged to he Married. — Sails for New- York with 
Flotilla. — Employed in Protection of the Harhour. 
— Attack of the Leopard on the Chesapeake. — 
Perry^s Feelings on the occasion. — British Spoli. 
ations on our Commerce. — Our inalility to pro. 
tect it. — Perry ordered to huild more Gwiboats. — 
Appointed to command the Revenge. — Attached to 
Commodore Rodgers^s Squadron. — Ordered to 
Washington to refit. — Sails for Charleston. — 
Cruises on Southern Coast, — Encounter with a 
British Sloop. — Expects an Engagement. — Pre- 
pares to hoard. — Pacific Termination. — Returns 
to Charleston. — Proceeds to New-York. — Receives 
Instructions from Commodore Rodgers. — Is or. 
dered to Newport. — Engaged in a Survey of the 
Sound. — Shipwreck of the Revenge. — Ineffectual 
efforts to save her. — Crew saved. — Court of In- 
quiry. — Perry honourahly acquitted. — Furlough- 
ed. — Married. 

On the return of young Perry to Newport in the 
autumn of 1806, he resumed ■with dihgence his 
mathematical and miscellaneous studies. Having, 
however, revived his intimacies of former years. 



76 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

he was soon drawn into the gayeties of the place, 
and thus led to make an acquaintance which, for 
a season, effectually put to flight his mathematical 
reveries. In January, 1807, at an assembly, he first 
met the lady who subsequently became his wife 
— Miss EHzabeth Champhn Mason. She had 
not yet completed her sixteenth year; was just en* 
tering life in the first bloom of loveliness, spark- 
ling with feeling, intelligence, and talent, and gift- 
ed with a thousand rare qualities of truth, simpli- 
city, fortitude, and warm-hearted affection, which 
have steadfastly attended her through many a 
scene of joy and one of sorrow. 

The professional employment of young Perry at 
Newport favoured their frequent meeting, and the 
acquaintance thus begun soon ripened into love. 
It was the season of the gunboat and embargo 
policy, that wretched system of supplying protec- 
tion to our commerce from foreign spoliation, by 
annihilating it ; of blockading our own harbours, 
and defending their egress against our own mer- 
chant vessels by means of gunboats, suited onty to 
invite the aggression of belligerants at home by so 
futile a preparation to resist it, instead of accom- 
panying our commerce, wherever it had a right to 
go, by formidable squadrons for its protection. 

Perry having been appointed to superintend the 
construction of seventeen gunboats at Newport, 
was employed for several months in the neigh- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 77 

bourhood where he was most desirous of remain- 
ing. Associated with him in this duty was his in- 
timate friend and late shipmate in the Constella- 
tion, Lieutenant Samuel G. Blodgett, with whom, ^ 
in what concerned his obligations as an officer 
and the dearest feelings of his heart, he could 
freely sympathize. It is creditable to young Per- 
ry, and shows the confidence of the Navy Depart- 
Tient, based upon the favourable report of his va- 

ious commanders, that he should have been cho- 
sen at so early an age to build, equip, and com- 
mand this large detachment of gunboats; and the 
circumstance of his being ready in June to proceed 
\^'ith his force to New-York, shows that, with every 
private motive to delay, he must have used great 
energy and despatch in the execution of the ser- 
yice intrusted to him. Before his departure for 
New-York he became the pledged and accepted 
lover of Miss Mason. 

The detachment of gunboats under the com- 
mand of Lieutenant Perry was employed, with 
the rest of the flotilla stationed at New- York, in 
endeavours to protect the harbour and adjacent 

,'aters from the encroachments of the English and 
French belligerants, especially the former. It was 
while he was employed in this service that the 
British filled up the measure of insult and san- 
guinary outrage of our flag, by the attack of the 
Chesapeake frigate by the double-decked ship 
G2 



78 AMERICAN BIOGRAPH^ 

Leopard, which lay at anchor within our own wa- 
ters in Lynnhaven Bay, waiting for the saihng of 
the Chesapeake, in order to take from her certain 
# alleged deserters. While the humane feelings of 
the country were wounded by the causeless slaugh- 
ter of a number of Americans, the national sense 
of honour was stung into keen resentment by the 
mortifying reflection that no effort had been made 
to maintain the glory of our flag ere it was lower- 
ed in dishonour. The feehng with which Perry 
received the intelhgence of this cold-blooded at- 
tack is expressed in a letter written soon aftei to\ 
his father, who was at that time abroad. It ia in- 
teresting, as showing the feeling with which he en- 
tered the struggle with England which soon aftei 
ensued; and his warning for her to " beware !'\ 
has since proved to be prophetic. .," Yctu must,- 
ere this, have heard of the outrage committed by 
the British on our national honour, and feel with 
us all the indignation that so barbarous and cow- 
ardly an act must naturally inspire. Thank God ! 
all parties are now united in the determination to 
resent so flagrant an insult. There is but one sen- 
timent pervading the bosom of every American 
from North to South. The British may laugh, but 
let them beware ! for never has the public indig- 
nation been so completely aroused since the glo- 
rious revolution that made us a nation of freemen. 
Tbo utmost spirit prevails througfhout the United 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 79 

States in preparing for an event which is thought 
inevitable, and our officers wait with impatience 
for the signal to be given to w^ipe away the stain 
which the misconduct of one has cast on our flag." 
The elder Perry could fully sympathize with 
this indignation of his son. He had returned to 
the merchant service, in which he had been for 
some years employed, either as a master or super- 
cargo. On a recent voyage in command of an 
Indiaman, he had been detained by a British cruis- 
er at the Cape of Good Hope under some one of 
the vexatious orders in council. A daily visit to 
the ship of the commanding officer, to plead for 
the release of his property from unjust detention, 
called forth almost daily some new indignity, until, 
outraged on one occasion beyond endurance by 
some taunt to his country, he knocked down the 
officer of the deck from whom he had receivec? 
the insult. From the unpleasant consequences h 
which this affair involved him, he was released by 
the interference of an officer of rank, whom, when 
a soldier of the Kingston Reds, he had assisted in 
taking prisoner, and whom he had carried behind 
him on horseback to his father's house, where the 
prisoner had been hospitably entertained. More 
recently, Captain Perry had been detained, with 
other American shipmasters, in Lisbon, where a 
fresh insult against his country had involved him 
in a duel with a British officer, in which his anta?- 



80 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

onist had been wounded. He could therefore fully 
sympathize in the indignation expressed by his son, 
and only regret that his separation from the naval 
service of his country should prevent him from ta- 
king part in the struggle which had now become 
inevitable. 

The war, which at that time was almost univer- 
sal among the other maritime nations of the world, 
had thrown nearly all the carrying trade into the 
hands of our merchant ships. This exemption 
from the evils of w^ar, and the immense profit we 
were deriving from our pacific and neutral position, 
excited much jealousy on the part of England and 
France, the two principal belligerants. Impelled 
by this jealousy, and by the predatory spirit which 
war invariably engenders ; stimulated, moreover, 
by the desire of depriving each other of the ad- 
vantages which they were mutually deriving from 
our trade, these nations took advantage of its un- 
^protected state to pursue towards it a system of 
legalized spoliation. England had led the way 
with an order to her cruisers to capture all neutral 
merchant ships trading to the colonies of a belli- 
gerant at war with England, wdiich belligerant did 
not permit such trade to her colonies during peace, 
"his order was ostensibly intended to distress the 
French colonies in the West Indies and elsewhere ; 
its immediate effects fell almost entirely on our 
commerce. Not long after, she declared the coasts' 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 81 

of France, Holland, and Germany, from Brest to 
the Elbe, in a state of blockade ; and, though such 
rigorous and effective blockade as is necessary to 
constitute a legal one was manifestly impossible 
over an extent of coast, including all its inflexions, 
of more than eight hundred miles, yet she so far 
enforced it as to make captures of such vessels as 
were accidentally detected in approaching these 
forbidden shores. The French emperor, though 
still less able to blockade the whole British coast, 
followed the example of England, and proclaimed 
it in a state of blockade ; his cruisers and priva- 
teers actually making captures of neutral vessels 
on a coast where they only appeared themselves 
as fugitives, and at the imminent peril of capture. 
Such a system of warfare, in violation of all the 
hitherto established rights of neutrals, had a ruin- 
ous effect upon our trade, and threatened it with 
absolute annihilation. The improvidence of the 
government, and the sordid policy which it had 
pursued towards the navy, left it without the 
means of convoying our ships with formidable 
squadrons, and causing our rights to be respected. 
Even at that late hour for preparation for maritime 
defence, such ships as we possessed might have 
been fitted out, and others built, and sent abroad 
for the protection of our commerce. It was more 
congenial to the narrow and timid policy of that 
day to recall our commerce from the ocean, than 



82 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

to follow and protect it there. It was in this spirit 
that the embargo was proclaimed towards the 
close of 1807, and evils not less ruinous than the 
spoliations of the belligerants inflicted by ourselves. 
Instead of sending forth line-of-battle ships and 
frigates to convoy our merchant ships, it became 
necessary to have fresh recourse to the panacea of 
gunboats, and one hundred and eighty-eight ad- 
ditional boats were ordered to be built, which car- 
ried the whole number of this class of vessels to 
two hundred and fifty-seven, whose means of an 
noyance were directed against our own vessels, to 
prevent them from departing, and to maintain an 
effective blockade of our own ports. 

Lieutenant Perry had so satisfactorily acquitted 
himself of the duty of constructing and equipping 
the seventeen gunboats, which he had carried to 
New-York and continued for a season to command 
there, that he was now ordered to commence the 
construction of an additional number, which were 
forthwith laid down at Westerly, on the Pawcatuck 
River, which forms the western boundary of Rhode 
Island, and at the adjacent village of Norwich, in 
Connecticut. In the construction of these boats 
he was employed from the beginning of February, 
1808, until April, 1809, when, the vessels being 
completed, their farther equipment was suspended. 

In the same month he was appointed to succeed 
Lieutenant Jacob Jones on board the schooner Re- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 83 

venge, of fourteen guns, then attached to the 
squadron under the command of Commodore Rodg- 
ers, who had his flag on board the Constitution. 
This squadron, consisting of four frigates, five 
sloops, and a number of smaller vessels, had been, 
as an after -thought to the gunboat system, wisely 
placed in commission, to assist in guarding our neu- 
trality and protecting the sovereignty of our own 
coasts. The outrage on the Chesapeake had quick- 
ened the resentment, while it excited the watch- 
fulness of our little navy. With the probability 
of a war with England mingled the reflection that 
we should have to contend with a formidable foe, 
to quicken the zeal of our officers in preparing for 
the struggle, and the chivalrous hope to wipe 
away the stain on the honour of the profession, 
which it had received in that ignominious encoun- 
ter. The flower of our navy was rescued from 
the gunboat service and its inevitably deteriorating 
effects, the tendency of which was to destroy the 
discipline, moral character, and tone of the profes- 
sion, and collected on board of a few ships of 
force, under commanders who had been trained at 
Tripoli, the whole being under the orders of Com- 
modore Rodgers. Under the watchful guidance 
of this skilful and intrepid seaman and exactly 
rigid officer, our navy was brought to a state of 
discipline, efficiency, and readiness for action which 
has never been surpassed. If accident subsequent- 



84 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

ly prevented that consummate commander from 
encountering an enemy of equal force during the 
war, the victories that were won by his more for- 
tunate pupils were not a little owing to the train- 
ing, discipline, and readiness for service which he 
had so universally introduced. 

After cruising during the summer and winter in 
company with the squadron. Perry was ordered, 
in April, 1810, to proceed with the Revenge to 
yVashington, to undergo extensive repairs at the 
navy-yard of that place. It is recorded in the 
log-book of the Revenge, that, in passing Mount 
Vernon in ascending the Potomac, the schooner 
fired a salute in honour of its former possessor, 
whose remains still repose there. This has been 
an honourable custom of our national vessels in 
passing this consecrated spot ever since we have 
had a navy ; and though, in the regulations with 
regard to salutes, no provision is made for one on 
such an occasion, it is to be hoped that it may 
never be omitted, and, in order to this object, that 
it may be legalized by an express regulation. 

The Revenge, having been put in order for a 
cruise, sailed from Washington on the twentieth of 
May, bound to Charleston, in the neighbourhood 
of which place she was ordered to be employed. 
Having touched at Norfolk, she proceeded to sea, 
and arrived safely at her destination, after a bois- 
terous passage, without other accident or adven- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 85 

'lire of note recorded in the log-book than the 
falling overboard of a man, who, notwithstanding 
that it blew fresh and the schooner was going free 
under a press of sail, was recovered. The circum- 
stance is thus sententiously recorded in the log- 
book : " At ten, thirty, Johnson Dickson, marine, 
fell overboard. Rounded to, out boat, brought 
him safe on board." We shall see in the sequel, 
and it is at once an evidence of Perry's humane 
feelings acting to excite and quicken him, and of 
his skilful seamanship, that he was unusually suc- 
cessful in his efforts to rescue shipwrecked and 
drowning men. 

On the twenty-second of June, the Revenge 
again put to sea from Charleston, for the purpose 
of cruising on the neighbouring coast and protect- 
ing our waters against the encroachments of the 
J^ritish cruisers that were hovering about the coast, 
and of the French, should any be encountered. 
The orders under which he acted were to protect 
our merchantmen, and those of all other nations 
within our waters, extending to the distance of a 
marine league from the coast, from capture or mo- 
lestation. Any foreign cruiser or privateer at- 
tempting to molest such merchant vessels was to 
be captured and sent in for adjudication. Any 
private armed vessel found hovering within our 
waters as thus described, with a view of making 
captures, was to be ordered off, and force used to 
H 



86 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

compel her departure. If such vessel had in- 
creased her armament in the United States, she 
was to be sent in for adjudication. Any citizens 
of the United States found affording aid as pilots, 
or by furnishing supplies to such vessels hovering 
on the coast, were to be reported to the nearest 
United States attorney for prosecution. 

In the middle of July, while in the neighbour- 
hood of Cumberland Island on the coast of Geor- 
gia, the deputy United States marshal arrived on 
board the Revenge with a warrant from the Uni- 
ted States district judge for the seizure of a ship 
then lying in Spanish waters, off Amelia Island, 
under English colours, and bearing the fictitious 
name of Angel, though known to be the ship Di- 
ana, of Wiscasset. It seems that the master of this 
vessel, by name James Tibbets and by birth an 
Englishman, had fraudulently retained possession 
of the ship during several years, refusing to retur* 
with her to the United States, as the owners had 
urgently and repeatedly ordered him to do. Per- 
mission had been obtained from the Spanish gov- 
ernor of Amelia Island for the American authori- 
ties to take possession of the Diana, he being con- 
vinced that she was really an American vessel, be- 
longing to the individuals in whose behalf she was 
claimed. The ship was, however, lying under the 
battery of the British gunbrig Plumper and schoon- 
er Jupiter, and, as she wore English colours, it was 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 87 

presumed that Tibbets had procured from the Eng- 
lish commander a promise of assistance : a pre- 
sumption rendered reasonable enough by the fre- 
quent outrages of every sort committed by British 
cruisers on our commerce. 

Lieutenant Perry immediately yielded to the re- 
quest of the marshal that he would take posses- 
sion of the Diana, and, having called to his assist- 
ance three gunboats stationed in the river St. 
Mary's, so as to reduce the disparity of his force 
with the English force with which he was likely 
to have to contend, he proceeded to Amelia Isl- 
and and took possession of the Diana, carrying 
her from under the guns of the English cruisers, 
and anchoring her off Cumberland Island. At 
the request of the agent, he now placed the sail- 
ing-master of the Revenge on board of the Diana 
as master, to prosecute her voyage to Europe, and 
in a few days stood to sea in company with her, 
to convoy her off the coast. Before clearing the 
land, a large sail was discovered bearing down 
upon them from the southward, and eastward. 
This was soon ascertained to be a British sloop-of- 
war. The Revenge was cleared for action so 
soon as the stranger was made out to be a cruiser. 
The ship rounded to alongside of the Revenge, 
and sent an officer on board of her to state that 
the sloop was H. B. M. ship Goree, Captain Byng, 
and to request that the commander of the schoon- 



88 AMERICAN BIOGEAPHY. 

er would come on board and explain the character 
of his vessel. Lieutenant Pern* returned a dis- 
tinct refusal; and having no idea of being "Leop- 
ardized" without one blow for the honour of the 
flag if his reply should proTe displeasing, and 
having httle hope of resisting in a fair cannonade 
"with a vessel of double his force, he took a fa- 
vourable position for boarding at a moment's 
warning in case of a shot or any show of hostil- 
ity from the Goree. He was prepared to lead his 
whole crew over the bulwarks, armed with cut- 
lasses, pistols, and battleaxes, the instant the two 
vessels should be in contact, and the suddenness 
and audacit}- of the assault might well have ren- 
dered it successful. This is the opinion of the of- 
ficer from whom the anecdote, which is confirmed 
by the logbook, was received, William Sinclair, 
Esq., now a purser in the navy, and who served 
on board the Revenge as midshipman. He states, 
"Our crew consisted of about ninet}- good men; 
and, although the attempt to board might appear 
desperate, yet it was our belief at the time that, 
considering the Goree would not expect such an 
attempt, our gallant commander would have suc- 
ceeded. His cool self-possession and admirable 
command of feature inspired every soul with en- 
thusiastic confidence, and foreshadowed that gal- 
lant exploit on the lake which has rendered his 
name immortal." 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 89 

Fortunately, the captain of the Goree was a rea- 
sonable man, and probably saw the impropriety of 
enforcing what he had asked for; he sent back 
his boat with a request that an officer might be 
sent from the Revenge to give the necessary in- 
formation as to her character; and as this was 
merely doing what Captain Byng had already 
done, the request was readily granted, and a boat 
and officer in like mamier sent from the Revenge 
to the Goree, to state the character of the Re- 
venge and the name of her commander: a name 
which a very few years later would have been 
a familiar one. 

The valuable services rendered by Lieutenant 
Perry in recovering the Diana called for the 
warmest thanks of those who w^ere interested in 
her, and the circumstances attending it became 
known to the country in consequence of the pub- 
lication by the secretary of the navy of the fol- 
lowing letter, addressed by the agents of the ship 
to Lieutenant Perry, with a request that a copy of 
it might be forwarded to the secretary of the na- 
vy : " The Diana having arrived at Savannah in 
safety, and sailed again upon her destined voyage, 
we avail ourselves of the opportunity to inform you 
thereof, and to tender to yourself and to the gen- 
tlemen of the squadron in the river St. Mary's, 
under your command while there, in behalf of 
ourselves and the owners of the ship, our w^armest 
TT 9 



90 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

thanks for the zeal and anxiety manifested by you 
for the honour and prosperity of the American 
flag. We cannot close this letter of thanks with- 
out expressing our admiration of the firmness and 
decision, properly tempered with moderation, 
evinced by you, when it seemed probable, from the 
reports in circulation, that a hostile course might 
have been adopted against the Diana, and of the 
complete state of preparation in which you con- 
stantly held yourself to repel any attack upon the 
sovereignty of the United States." 

After cruising a short time on the coast of Geor- 
gia, the Revenge returned to Charleston. This 
was her place of rendezvous and of refittal while 
on this station. Charleston was at that time a 
naval station, and the command vested for many 
years in Commodore Campbell, Perry's old cap- 
tain during two cruises to the Mediterranean. The 
partiality which the old gentleman had always 
felt for his youthful officer, and which had showed 
itself in forwarding his promotion to a lieutenant 
at a very early age, continued still to follow him 
with acts of kindness. His leisure hours at Charles- 
ton, in the brief intervals of his cruises, were al- 
ways pleasantly spent in the society of his old 
commander and of a numerous circle of friends, 
with whom his acquaintance dated from this pe- 
riod, and who watched his future career with no 
little interest. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 91 

On the 10th of August the Revenge left Charles- 
ton for New-York, where she was again attached 
to the squadron under Commodore Rodgers, en- 
gaged in the protection of our coast from Cape 
Henry to the eastern limit of the United States. 
Here he received a circular from the commodore, 
enclosing another from the secretary of the navy, 
which he was ordered to communicate to his offi- 
cers and crew. " You, like every other patriotic 
American," it stated, "have observed and deeply 
felt the injuries and insults heaped on our country 
by the two great belhgerants of Europe ; and you 
must also believe that from neither are we to ex- 
pect liberality or justice, but, on the contrary, that 
no opportunity will be lost of adding to the out- 
rages to which for years we have been subjected. 
Among these stands most conspicuous the inhuman 
and dastardly attack on our frigate Chesapeake ; 
an outrage which prostrated the flag of our coun- 
try, and has imposed on the American people cause 
of ceaseless mourning. That same spirit which 
originated and has refused atonement for this act 
of brutal injustice, exists still with Great Britain, 
and from France likewise w^e have no reason to 
expect any regard to our rights. What has been 
perpetrated may again be attempted. It is there- 
fore our duty to be prepared and determined, at 
every hazard, to vindicate the injured honour of 
our mvy, and revive the drooping spirit of the 



92 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

nation. Influenced by these considerations, it is 
expected that, while you conduct the force under 
your command consistently with the principle of 
a strict and upright neutrality, you are to maintain 
at every cost the dignity of our flag ; and that, of- 
fering yourself no unjust aggression, you are to 
submit to none, not even a menace, from a force 
not materially your superior." As a commentary 
upon this letter, Commodore Rodgers added the 
following : " Circumstanced as we are with the 
two great belligerants of Europe, and particularly 
England, I should consider the firing of a shot by 
a vessel of war of either nation at one of our pub- 
lic vessels, while the colours of her nation are fly- 
ing on board of her, as a menace of the grossest 
order, and, in amount, an insult which it would be 
disgraceful not to resent, by the firing of two shot 
at least; and that, under similar circumstances, 
should a shot be fired at one of our vessels, and 
strike any part of her, it ought to be considered 
an act of hostility, meriting chastisement to the 
utmost extent of all your force." The foregoing 
is chiefly interesting now by showing us the anx- 
ious preparation with which we went into the war 
with England, and by rem^ding us, in the contrast 
with our present position, of all that we have gain- 
ed from it. 

Kindly entering into Perry's strong desire to be 
employed in the neighbourhood of Newport, the 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 93 

commodore now assigned him the extent of coast 
between Montauk Point and the south shoal of 
Nantucket as his cruising ground, with Newport 
for a rendezvous ; and ordered him to proceed im- 
mediately to that place. He lost no time in obey- 
ing the order, and remained during the autumn 
in and about the harbour, occasionally making a 
cruise along the coast. The log-book bears evi- 
dence of a lively attention to whatever could ren- 
der the vessel efficient and formidable. The train- 
ing of the crew of the Revenge was not merely 
confined to the customary exercises of the great 
guns and small arms, but frequently, when under 
way, targets were thrown overboard, at which the 
crew were exercised in firing, exposed to the same 
swell of the ocean, the influence of which they 
would probably feel in a real encounter. 

In the month of December Perry joined the com- 
modore at New-London, and soon after received a 
communication from him, stating that, as the ports 
of New-London and Newport, together with Gar- 
diner's Bay, possessed great advantages, from the 
circumstance that, at any season of the year, and 
with the wind from any quarter of the compass, 
the dullest sailing vessel could gain at least one of 
the three, and thus obtain a convenient and safe 
anchorage, he considered it a matter of much im- 
portance that a correct survey of the whole should 
be made, including the intermediate navigation, 



94 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

with the bearing of the various headlands, so as to 
form a single sheet chart of the whole on a large 
scale, and therefore instructed Perry forthwith to 
commence the necessary surveys for the comple- 
tion of so desirable a work. 

The selection of Perry for this purpose was due 
to his high standing as a seaman and an officer, 
and his superior scientific attainments. Pleased 
with the duty, and flattered by its being assigned 
to him, as is apparent from his reply to the order 
of the commodore, he set about the execution of 
it without loss of time, and repaired at once to 
Newport, with the survey of which he had been 
directed to commence his operations. Though the 
object of the commodore was enlightened and 
laudable, the season of the year which had been 
selected for this survey was certainly very unsuit- 
able. Perry set about it, however, with a good 
will, and with a perfect indifference to the expo- 
sure so far as he was himself concerned. The 
commodore had ordered him to complete the 
survey of Newport, and return to New-London 
within a week. But the weather was very se- 
vere, and the boats were unavoidably occupied in 
communicating with the shore, and bringing off 
water and provisions. At the end of the week, 
little had been done towards the survey ; but Perry 
determined, in compliance with his orders, to return 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 95 

to New-London, and obtain from the commodore 
an extended term to complete the service. 

A contrary wind, attended by a thick fog, pre- 
vented him for several days from sailing. At 
length, on the eighth of January, 1811, the weath- 
er cleared off, and he sailed with a light northeast 
wind from Newport at midnight, in order to have 
daylight to pass through the Race, as the danger- 
ous strait between Fisher's Island and Watch Hill 
is called. Mr. Peter Daggett, a w^ell-known coast- 
ing and Sound pilot, was on board the Revenge in 
the character of acting sailing-master and pilot. 
After the schooner had been under way about an 
hour, it became once more foggy. Perry asked 
Daggett if he could take the schooner to New- 
London in such weather. He replied, without hes- 
itation, that he could. Perry ordered an anchor to 
be kept ready for letting go, and told the pilot if 
he had any doubt, to come to anchor at once. At 
sdx in the morning the Revenge passed Point Ju- 
dith in fourteen fathoms. The distance from thence 
to Watch Hill, the next headland, was estimated 
by pilots and laid down on the chart as thirty 
miles on a nearly west course. As the vessel was 
only going three knots, and the ordinary strength 
of the flood-tide, wdiich was then setting, was es- 
timated at two knots, it was computed that at 
least six hours' of such sailing would be necessary 
to bring the schooner up with Watch Hill Reef, 



96 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

which makes out from the headland of that name. 
She was, however, on account of the fog, steered 
a point off shore, or to the south of the usual 
course. At nine o'clock, Perry being below, heard 
the leadsmen, there being one in each chains, give 
ten fathoms as the cast, the previous Casts having 
been from eleven to fourteen fathoms. He imme- 
diately went on deck and ordered the helm to 
starboard ; he found that it was already to star- 
board, having been put so by order of the pilot. 
The schooner came rapidly round until she headed 
south by west; but, as she still shoaled her water to 
five, three, and at last to two and a half fathoms, 
which showed that she was embayed by the reef, 
Perry ordered the anchor to be let go. It was in- 
stantly let go, and, at the same moment, her stern 
struck. The anchor checked her bows round so 
as to enable her to head out clear of the reef, the 
signal spindle on which was now visible, and a 
light breeze springing up at the same moment, 
Perry ordered the sails to be trimmed, and, as the 
schooner shot ahead, gave the order to cut the 
cable. She ranged a short distance ahead, when 
the wind failing, and the swell and flood-tide 
coming in strong at the same moment, canted her 
round bows on to the reef. 

As it was the top of high water, the chances of 
saving the vessel were very slender. Neverthe- 
less, the boats were hoisted out and sent to sound, 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 97 

and a kedge and hawser carried out in the direc- 
tion of the deepest water. The hawser being 
hove well taught, eight of the guns were thrown 
overboard, and whatever heavy articles could be 
got at. The water was started, the pumps work- 
ed incessantly, and hands employed at the same 
time in baling with buckets, for she had begun to 
leak badly. Minute guns were fired as signals of 
distress to bring off assistance ; and, as the schoon- 
er laboured and thumped heavily. Perry ordered 
the mainmast to be cut away, and soon after the 
foremast also. In twenty minutes after the schoon- 
er struck, she bilged in two places. 

No hope now remaining of saving the vessel, 
Perry gave his whole thoughts to the business of 
saving the crew intrusted to his care. The signal 
guns had brought several boats from the shore, 
but the swell rendered it difficult and dangerous 
to approach the wreck. Nevertheless, the sick 
were lowered into the boats by carefully watch- 
ing the swell, and after them the marines and 
boys, and sent on shore. During the rest of the 
day, the boats from the shore, with those of the 
schooner, were busily employed in removing what- 
ever was of most value. By sunset nearly every- 
thing moveable, including the sails, rigging, and 
small arms, was removed. The wind had now 
come on to blow violently on the reef, and the 
surf nearly broke over the vessel, which was fast 
I 



98 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

going to pieces ; the cold, moreover, was intense. 
Under these circumstances, the duty which Perry 
owed to the officers and men who had remained 
toihng with him on the wreck throughout the day, 
rendered it incumbent on him to remove them to 
a place of safety. They were with difficulty ena- 
bled to reach the boats by lowering themselves 
from ropes over the stern, and Perry was himself 
the last to leave the wreck. On reaching the 
shore, the crew were mustered and distributed to 
the various houses for the night. 

On the following morning, a portion of the 
wreck, consisting of the deck and bulwarks, waj 
discovered to have floated off the reef. The 
launches of the President and Constitution frigates 
had arrived from New-London during the night, 
under the charge of Lieutenants Ludlow and Mor- 
ris, to render assistance. By the aid of these. 
Perry went off to the wreck and took it in tow, in 
order to beach it on Fisher's Island. While en- 
gaged in this effort, it came on to blow heavily 
from the northeast, attended with sleet and ex- 
cessive cold. A smack hired by the commodore 
had arrived, and assisted in towing the wreck. 
The remainder of the schooner's armament, con 
sisting of six light carronades, was now taken into 
the launches. When nearly up with the island, 
the hawser attached to the wreck parted, and th 
violence of the sea breaking over the vessel pre 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 99 

vented any attempt to approach her to make fast 
again. The wreck was therefore abandoned, and 
the smack, with the launches in tow, ran into New- 
London to take refuge from the storm. 

As is usual in such cases, a court of inquiry was 
ordered to take into consideration the circumstan- 
ces attending the loss of the Revenge, and to 
make a minute report of all the facts, upon which 
the secretary of the navy could found a judgment 
as to the necessity of farther proceedings. This 
court, which consisted of Captain Hull, and Lieu- 
tenants Ludlow and Morris, decided that the fault 
of getting the vessel on shore rested with the pilot 
alone; that every possible exertion had been made 
by Lieutenant Perry, first to get his vessel afloat, 
and then to watch over the preservation and wel- 
fare of the sick and helpless portion of his crew, 
and lastly to preserve whatever was most valua^ 
ble of the vessel's furniture. It was proved that 
his manner had been unchanged, by the peril and 
anxiety of his situation ; that his orders had been 
given in his calm and ordinary tone, and executed 
with the same cheerfulness and order as on com- 
mon occasions, and that the most perfect discipline 
and subordination had been preserved throughout 
the whole trying scene. It was only from the evi- 
dence of others that the fact was elicited that he 
had been himself the last to leave the vessel. 

In reviewing these circumstances, we will find 



100 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

that Perry exhibited in this moment of disaster not 
a few of the quahties which were afterward dis- 
played on a more brilhant as well as more fortu- 
nate field of adventure; the same calmness, the 
same self-composure, the same indomitable unvv^ill- 
ingness to yield to the pressure of overpowering 
circumstances, the same humane sympathy with 
the suffering ; storms, cold, which so often benumbs 
the stoutest heart, the perils of rocks and waves, 
had no power to unman him or bend him from his 
duty ; and we find him, on the morning after the 
disaster, returning to the wreck, and clinging to 
the few remaining planks of the vessel which had 
been intrusted to him with unyielding tenacity. 
The impression made upon the secretary of the 
navy by the evidence adduced before the court of 
inquiry may be gathered from the following letter, 
addressed by him to Commodore Rodgers : 

"Having attentively examined the proceedings 
of the court, I derive much satisfaction from per- 
ceiving that it is unnecessary to institute any far- 
ther proceedings in the case. With respect to 
Lieutenant Perry, I can only say, that my confi- 
dence in him has not been in any degree dimin- 
ished by his conduct on the occasion. The loss of 
the Revenge appears to be justly chargeable to the 
pilot. This accident will no doubt present to Lieu- 
tenant Perry considerations that may be useful to 
him in future command. An officer, just to him- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 101 

»elf and to his country, will not be depressed by- 
defeat or misfortune, but will be stimulated by 
cither cause to greater exertions. If there should 
be any situation in the squadron to which you can 
appoint Lieutenant Perry that may be consistent 
with his just pretensions, and not interfere with the 
rights of others, you will appoint him to it ; if not, 
he is to be furloughed, waiting the orders of this 
department." 

After returning to Newport, Perry made a visit 
to Washington. He was kindly received by Mr. 
Paul Hamilton, then secretary of the navy, who 
had conceived a favourable opinion of him from 
the circumstances attending his late southern cruise 
in the Revenge, from his conduct during the disas- 
ter which had deprived him of his command, and 
the approving testimony of his various command- 
ers. The chief object of his visit was to ascertain 
whether he could remain undisturbed for a year 
by any call of duty which would withdraw him 
from Newport. Having been reassured on this 
subject by receiving a leave of absence for that 
term, he returned with a light heart to Newport, 
and on the fifth of the following May he was mar- 
ried to Miss Mason, after an engagement of four 
years. An attachment tested by so long a proba- 
tion, and strengthened by every fresh observation 
^ each other's qualities of character and of heart, 
nromised as fair a share of wedded happiness as 
12 



102 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

ever falls to the lot of mortals. Until death inter- 
posed to separate the devoted pair, this promise 
was most amply redeemed. 

The wedding tour of the young couple consisted 
in a journey of some length, over various parts of 
New-England, with which both of them were de- 
sirous of becoming better acquainted. In the 
course of the tour they passed a day at Plymouth, 
in which place Perry took a particular interest, 
from its having been the residence, for a time, of 
the first of his ancestors who had emigrated to 
America. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 103 



CHAPTER V. 

State of our relations with Belligerants. — Napoleon 
repeals his predatory Decrees. — Continued Hostil- 
ily of England. — War against our Commerce. — 
Impressment of our Seamen. — War with England. 
— Perry applies for Sea-service. — Appointed to 
command Newport Flotilla. — Zeal with which he 
enters on the service. — His Discipline. — Style of 
Correspondence. — Exercise of his Flotilla. — Cap. 
ture of the Guerriere. — Lieutenant Morris posted, 
— Dissatisfaction of the Service. — Perry approves 
of it. — His Conduct towards Mr. Morris. — Loss 
of Lieutenant Blodgett. — Renewed application for 
Sea-service. — Offers his Services to Commodore 
Chaunceyfor the Lakes. — Capture of the Macedo- 
nian. — Proposed Increase of the Navy. — Suggests 
the expediency of huilding a Frigate in Rhode Isl- 
and. — Lieutenant Allen appointed to the Argus. — 
Perry remonstrates. — Claims the Command. — His 
Delicacy to Allen. — Perry designated to command 
on Lake Erie. 

Meantime, no improvement had taken place in 
our relations with England. The embargo had 
been found so ruinous to our commerce, so difficult 
of enforcement, and so very unpopular, that it had 
been revoked after a duration of more than a 



^.04 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. " 

year, and a state of non-intercourse with France 
and England substituted for it. France, having 
no commerce of her own, suffered greatly more 
than England from this suspension of trade. On 
this account, and not from any superior sense of 
justice. Napoleon was induced so far to relax his 
predatory spoliations on our commerce as to bring 
himself within a provision of the non-intercourse 
act, by which, in case of the repeal, on the part of 
either of the belligerants, of their offensive meas- 
ures against our commerce, it was to be suspended. 
England, under the protection of her numerous 
fleets, being in the full enjoyment of her customary 
trade, was less sensibly affected by a non-inter- 
course with us, though still, even at that time, for 
her an evil of no trifling magnitude. She contin- 
ued to persevere in all her offensive measures to- 
wards us. Her orders in council were conceived 
not in justice or any recognised usage of nations, 
but simply in the interest of her commercial jeal- 
ousy. She destroyed our commerce, not because 
*t fostered the strength of her enemies and gave 
hem ability to resist, but because it interfered with 
le employment of her own shipping, and the 
^ains of an illicit traffic which she herself carried 
on with them. As was said, with no less truth 
than point, in the president's message in June of 
1812, " She carries on a war against the lawful 
?^ 'nmerce of a friend, that she may the bett*^^ cai 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 105 

ry on a commerce with an enemy ; a commerce 
polluted by the forgeries and perjuries which are, 
for the most part, the only passports by which it 
can succeed." 

But the most exasperating of her attacks upon 
us was the perpetual violation of our flag by her 
cruisers, not only on the great highway of nations, 
but upon our own coasts and even within our own 
waters, for the purpose of impressing our native 
seamen under the plea of their being Englishmen, 
or the insulting pretext of their having been im- 
pressed before. In this way hundreds of Ameri- 
cans w^ere annually torn from under the safeguard 
of our national banner, compelled to serve on 
board of British ships, to lose their lives in the 
cause of their oppressors, or be made instrument- 
al in taking away the lives of those with whom 
their country owned no enmity. And this exas- 
perating system was pursued in a manner the most 
haughty and insulting. The British navy had 
been demoralized by the extensive system of plun- 
der carried on under the orders in council, and a 
predatory and freebooting spirit had become a pre- 
vailing characteristic in it ; while the absence of all 
opposition from the w^eak victims of its injustice 
had fostered an insolent and overbearing demean- 
our. The outrage of impressment from on board 
our merchant vessels, extreme in itself, was almost 
always accompanied by unmeasured insult 



106 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

It was a circumstance of this nature that brought 
the President frigate -out, on the occasion when, 
while in search of the Guerriere, she fell in with 
the Little Belt in the night, and an accidental ren- 
counter took place, for which the contempt of 
the English and the well-grounded exasperation 
of the Americans mutually prepared them. Brit- 
ish contempt had, however, the greatest share in 
bringing on the contest, as the Little Belt was the 
first to fire. She was also, as might have been 
expected from her vastly inferior force, the great- 
est sufferer, though beyond all proportion with her 
relative strength. This rencounter added new in- 
tensity to the feeling of aversion existing between 
the two countries ; and Great Britain showing no 
disposition to do us justice for her past aggressions 
against the honour of our flag and the sanctity of 
the persons of our citizens, or to discontinue them 
for the future, we were compelled at length to 
adopt the only honourable alternative that remain- 
ed to us, that of declaring war. This alternative, 
from which an earlier display of spirit and devel- 
opment of our vast latent naval power would have 
saved us, was resorted to in June of 1812. 

In expectation of this event. Perry had hastened 
to Washington to endeavour to procure active em- 
ployment at sea. He was promised the first vacan- 
cy suited to his rank that should occur, and, in the 
mean time, was ordered to take command of four 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 107 

gunT)oats then laid up at Newport, together with 
four others, the construction of which he had su- 
perintended at Norwich and Westerly in 1808 and 
1809, immediately previous to his taking command 
of the Revenge. He had now^ been promoted to 
the rank of master commandant, and was ap- 
pointed to the chief command of the flotilla sta- 
tioned at Newport for the defence of the harbour 
and adjacent w^aters. He forthwith opened ren- 
dezvous at Newport and at New-London for re- 
cruiting the petty officers and seamen. He was 
ordered by the secretary of the navy to designate 
suitable persons to command the gunboats, and 
accordingly selected various officers of the navy 
and experienced shipmasters, who, on his recom- 
mendation, were duly appointed, with the rank of 
acting sailing-master. His connexion with the 
officers and men of the Newport flotilla is chiefly 
interesting, as it was continued on a more impor- 
tant sphere of action. Among the persons em- 
ployed in this service were midshipman Daniel 
Turner, acting masters W. V. Taylor and Ste- 
phen Champlain, and purser Samuel Hambleton 
— all names advantageously conspicuous in the 
battle of Lake Erie. Lieutenant S. G. Blodgett, 
the friend of his earlier professional years, was 
also associated with him in this command. Sub- 
sequently, four more gunboats from New-York were 
added to the Newport flotilla, making the whole 



108 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

force under his command twelve gmiboats, mannc 
by about two hundred officers and men. Two of 
them were stationed off Stonington, and the re- 
mainder at and about Newport, to watch the cruis- 
ers of the enemy, and repel any marauding attack 
on the villages of the neighbouring coasts. These 
vessels were generally armed with a single long 
twenty-four pounder, and had a complement of 
thirty men, exclusive of the officers 

The service that could be rendered by such a 
force was slight, and its purely defensive character 
rendered it uncongenial to the temper and feelings 
of Perry. Nevertheless, he devoted himself to the 
duties of his station as commandant of the flotilla 
with earnest zeal, and his official correspondence 
of the time bears evidence of his anxious and un- 
tiring efforts for the defence of the coast intrusted 
to his vigilance, and for the annoyance of the ene- 
my. The tone of his correspondence is respectful, 
modest, and decided. What he has to say is al- 
ways expressed briefly and sententiously, and there 
is nowhere the slightest trace of that professional 
jealousy or pique which is apt to grow up between 
officers of the same or of different arms, stationed 
in the neighbourhood of each other. In the whole 
mass of his letters to his inferiors — and, as there 
were twelve vessels under his orders, most of them 
generally at a distance, they were sufficiently nu- 
merous — there is not a single harsh, dictatorial, or 



OLIVETw HAZARD PERRY. 109 

wounding expression ; but one contains an ap- 
proach towards reproof. It is expressed as fol- 
lows : " I wrote you some days since to repair to 
this place, with the boats under your command, 
without loss of time, and am a little surprised to 
find you have not yet arrived. Should this find 
you in New-London, you will sail immediately for 
this, if the w^eather will at all permit." This ab- 
sence of reproof shows the absence of necessity for 
it; a state of disciphne that prevented offences 
rather than occupied itself with punishing them. 
It proves the extraordinary personal influence that 
Perry everywhere exerted from his earliest years; 
something which has been described by those who 
knew him intimately as winning affection while 
it repelled familiarity. It also gives evidence of 
that distinctive faculty of greatness, intuitive per- 
ception of character, and unerring judgment in 
the selection of agents to carry out his views. 
Perry did not make a single bad appointment. 
Each person who acted under him became his 
warm and devoted friend, and his friends proved 
all true men. To the various letters which he 
constantly received from the minor civil authorities 
on the extended line of coast under his protection, 
whose apprehensions rendered them importunate 
and unreasonable, and sometimes uncivil, he re- 
plied with uniform calmness, conciliation, and ur- 
banity. 

K 



110 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

The following letter, much the longest to be 
found in his correspondence, furnishes a fair spe- 
cimen of his style of professional communication. 
It was called forth by an order of the government, 
issued immediately after the gunboats were equip- 
ped and manned, and, as it appears from Captain 
Perry's letter, before the crews had worked out 
their advance, for the discharge of all but eight 
of the twenty-four men, exclusive of officers and 
petty officers, composing the crew of each boat. 
The motive of this reduction was economy, and it 
was proposed to trust to the chance of procuring 
volunteers to supply the place of the discharged 
seamen. Captain Perry's letter is cogent and to 
the point ; it shows completely the fallacy of trust- 
ing to such a resource. It is dated at Newport 
on the twenty-seventh of July, and is addressed 
to the secretary of the navy. 

" Having received an order a few days since to 
discharge all the crews of the gunboats under my 
command, except eight men to each, I consider it 
a duty to inform you of the probable result of that 
order. From the peculiar situation of this town, 
a ship may, from the time she is discovered in the 
offing, be at anchor in this harbour in less than an 
hour and a half.* The water up the bay is suffi- 

* In order to discover them even so long as this before their 
possible arrival, he had constructed a watch-tower on the ex- 
tremity of Rhode Island, where he kept a look-out party, which 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. Ill 

cient for vessels of the heaviest draught, and the 
towns of Providence, Bristol, Warren, Wickford, 
and Greenwich are without fortifications of any 
kind. There are very few seamen in this place at 
present, most of the ships belonging to it being 
absent. It will therefore be impossible to expect 
any assistance, or, if any, very trifling, on an emer- 
gency, from them. But, sir, if volunteers could 
be procured, the enemy would give us so little 
time — for no doubt they would take a favourable 
wind to come in — that it would be impossible to 
beat up for them, get them on board, and station 
them before probably the occasion for their servi- 
ces would be entirely over. . From the circumstance 
of the gunboats here being for the defence of so 
many valuable towns, totally defenceless in other 
respects, and from the singularly exposed situation 
of this town to the sudden invasion of an enemy 
I hope, sir, an exception may be made in favour 
of the boats on this station, and that they may be 
permitted to retain their full complement of men. 
I forbear to say anything of the situation of an 

communicated by signals the appearance of any sail in the offing. 
He had asked authority of the navy department for the con- 
struction of this simple and cheap structure at the public ex- 
pense ; but, having received no answer, the town authorities of 
Newport, feeling the importance of such a look-out station, ap- 
propriated the trifling sum that was necessary, and it was com- 
pleted by the mechanics of the flotilla, and kept by a small de- 
tachment from it. 



112 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

officer who commands a large nominal force, from 
whom much is expected, and by whom little can 
be performed." 

The foregoing letter evinces a lively interest in 
the welfare of his native state, which fully justifies 
the affection with which its citizens cherish his 
memory. It betrays no desire or willingness to 
acquiesce in an arrangement w^hich w^ould have 
removed from him in a great measure the respon- 
sibility which he was under for the protection of 
the coasts intrusted to his defence. He wished to 
be armed at all points, and then held responsible 
for the result. The zeal with which Perry exe- 
cuted the duties of his command is the more com- 
mendable, on account of his extreme desire for 
active employment at sea, which had not only led 
him to make repeated applications to the navy de- 
partment, but had induced him in June, just before 
his appointment to the command of the Newpod 
flotilla, to make a journey to Washington, and ex- 
ert all the influence he could bring forward to pro- 
cure him the command of a sloop-of-war. His 
own earnest solicitation and that of his friends 
were, however, powerless to procure him his cov- 
eted opportunity for distinction. He returned to 
his uncongenial command, and devoted himself to 
it faithfully. In the training of his crew to the 
exercise of great guns and small arms, with the 
use of the cutlass and pike, he personally took un- 



OLIVER HAZARD TERRY. 113 

wearied pains, as well as in drilling them in the 
necessary manoeuvres to enable them to act with 
effect on shore. Occasionally he assembled his 
gunboats together, and carried them through the 
various evolutions in the management of fleets, 
and, often dividing them into adverse squadrons, 
one under his own orders, the other under Lieu- 
tenant Blodgett's, would carry on a mimic engage- 
ment. This was not the kind of engagement for 
which he w^as at that time sighing, but it was not, 
perhaps, a useless preparation for one ; and it is nOi*- 
unlikely that he may thus have acquired a facihty 
in manoeuvring a number of vessels, or formed 
some conceptions of advantages to be gained and 
critical moments to be seized on in the encounter 
of fleets that were afterward useful to him. 

When, soon after the war began, the Constitu- 
tion captured the Guerriere, after a short and brill- 
iant action, and the country blazed with enthusi- 
asm from one extremity to the other, Perry w^as 
more taken up with sharing this enthusiasm than 
overcome by chagrin at his own present exclusion 
from any chance of participating in the glory of 
the victors, and the acclamation with which they 
were everywhere received. 

It will be remembered that Lieutenant Charles 

Morris was promoted after the action two grades, 

for having well performed his subordinate duties 

of first lieutenant of the Constitution. It would 

K2 



114 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

have been a proper, suitable, and customary re- 
ward for his good conduct if he had been made 
a master commandant, to date from the day of the 
victory. But it was a manifest violation of pro- 
priety, and of all that was due to the rights and 
feelings of the whole grade of masters command- 
ant, thus to promote over their heads a heutenant 
who had done his duty faithfully in a purely sub- 
ordinate character. The greatest injustice, how- 
ever, which it involved was to the veteran com- 
mander of the Constitution, under whose orders 
the victory had been won ; himself a practised 
seaman and thorough officer, and who has ever 
been eminently the captain of his own ship. 
There was no promotion for the chief in com- 
mand, and the liberality of the country was not 
equal to creating a new grade in order to promote 
him, when that new grade was otherwise neces- 
sary to the prosperity of the service. Instead of 
promoting him, the absence of promotion was 
made more sensible by raising his subordinate du- 
ring the action two grades, and making him, by a 
single stroke of the pen, his equal. 

Perry was one of the commanders over whose 
heads Lieutenant Morris was thus summarily pro- 
moted. He took a different view of this act from 
all others of his grade. The chivalrous magna- 
nimity of his feehngs on this occasion not only led 
him to acquiesce in Lieutenant Morris's promotion, 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. Hi 

but even to take a pointed means of showing it 
Mr. Morris had reached Providence, where he was 
lying ill of a dangerous \vound he had received 
during the action, when Perry first heard that he 
"was to be promoted at once to a post-captaincy. 
He told his intimate friend, Mr. William S. Rogers, 
subsequently a purser in the navy, and from whom 
the anecdote is derived, that this contemplated 
promotion had occasioned much dissatisfaction 
among the commanders and lieutenants above 
Morris. This feeling Perry said he did not share, 
and proposed to make a visit to Providence in one 
of the gunboats under his command, in order to 
express to Morris his own view-s on the subject. 
Perry went accordingly, and Mr. Rogers accom- 
panied him, and was present at the interview, 
which he represents as having been singularly 
interesting. After inquiring with much solicitude 
concerning Mr. Morris's health, he cordially con- 
gratulated him on the briUiant result of his cruise, 
and told him that his contemplated promotion to 
a post-captaincy met with his hearty approbation. 
He hoped that the same reward might attend any 
future display of gallant conduct ; a hope the more 
generous and disinterested, that his ow^n more ad- 
vanced rank would not allow him, in case of like 
good fortune, to be so largely benefited. The un- 
assuming and modest deportment of Mr. Morris, 
who was sensibly struck with this generous effort 



116 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

to relieve him from the painful feelings which the 
opposition of those he was about to supersede had 
evidently occasioned him in his debilitated state 
of health, and the frank and chivalrous bearing 
of Perry, which had in it a consciousness that he 
too would one day deserve the gratitude of his 
country if the opportunity were but given to him, 
rendered the whole scene most striking and im- 
pressive. Nor did Perry's generous feelings to- 
wards Mr. Morris end here. When he was sub- 
sequently promoted to a captaincy and appointed 
to the Adams, a noble corvette with twenty-eight 
guns on one deck^ thus rewarded for his past ser- 
vices and placed in a situation to win more glory, 
Perry, who was ineffectually seeking for the com- 
mand of a sea-going vessel of half that force, in- 
stead of giving way to any envious or ill-natured 
feelings towards him, took pleasure in rendering 
him every facility in procuring a crew, allowed 
the best of his own men to volunteer for the 
Adams, in order to go where they could be more 
useful, sent Mr. Daniel Turner to Providence to 
recruit men for her, and subsequently parted with 
that favourite officer, in order that he might place 
himself in the path to distinction. Having induced 
Captain Morris to receive Mr. Turner on board 
his ship, he sent him off with a draught of effi- 
cient seamen, without waiting for the orders which 
Captain Morris had told him would be speedily 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 117 

forwarded. Every officer in the navy will appre- 
ciate the generous self-denial of Perry's conduct ; 
it is as rare in the service, and as difficult to imitate 
as it is every way worthy of admiration. The 
reader will not fail to contrast it, in the sequel, 
wath the conduct which, under like circumstances, 
was observed towards Perry. 

A most distressing circumstance attended Per- 
ry's service in command of the flotilla at New- 
port, in the loss of his excellent and warmly-at- 
tached friend and shipmate. Lieutenant Blodgett. 
He had got under way at noon on the twenty- 
ninth of October, in gunboat number forty-six, to 
look round outside of the harbour. The wind w^as 
light from northeast when he started, but it came 
on to blow heavily w^hen he had reached the open 
ocean off the mouth of the harbour. He imme- 
diately hauled his wind, and commenced working 
back for the mouth of the harbour. The swell 
setting heavily along the shore, and the tide run- 
ning ebb, the schooner, which, like most of the 
gunboats, was dull and sluggish, worked slowly 
to windward. Still Blodgett did not li'^e to bear 
up and run into the Sound, which v, as his only 
alternative. He continued to beat to windward, 
standing close in to the shore to avoid the tide and 
prolong the benefit of the long tack. In attempt- 
ing to tack off the lighthouse on the south point 
of the island of Connanicut, the schooner missed 



118 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

stays ; a second attempt was made to tack her, 
■which equally failed ; and a last effort was made 
to veer her, in the hope that, though very close in, 
she might still clear the rocks. The schooner 
paid off a little, when the undertow neutralizing 
the effect of the helm, she went broadside to 
against the rocks. The sea now made a complete 
breach over the vessel. Blodgett at once saw that 
there was not the slightest hope of saving the ves- 
sel, and far from a certainty of saving the lives 
of the crew, for the night had just set in, and the 
weather was cold. It would depend entirely on 
the personal exertion of each to get ashore before 
the vessel should go to pieces, and he accordingly 
gave the order for each man to provide for his 
own safety, being determined not to leave the ves- 
sel himself until every man should gain the shore ; 
in short, not to be saved himself if one of his 
crew were lost. He was soon after washed over- 
board, and his body was never recovered ; nine 
others, out of eighteen composing the crew, shared 
the fate of their commander. Perry briefly but 
feelingly narrated the circumstances to the secre- 
tary of the navy, and by the same mail communi- 
cated the mournful intelligence to Blodgett's fa- 
ther, expressing, in doing so, a melancholy satisfac-. 
tion in being able to assure him that his son, in 
the last trying scene of his life, had acted with a 
firmness and decision most honourable to his mem- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 119 

ory. In Blodgett Perry lost an old, a sincere, and 
a warmly-attached friend, as well as a most use- 
ful assistant. Had he lived, he would doubtless 
have accompanied him to Lake Erie as his second 
in command, and shared the glory of a victory 
which the presence of an attached, courageous, 
and true-hearted coadjutor would have rendered 
of so much easier achievement. 

Towards the close of November Perry made 
another effort to procure service which w^ould 
bring him in contact with the enemy, by using the 
personal solicitation at Washington of his intimate 
friend, Mr. W. S. Rogers, w^ho went there for the 
purpose of settling Perry's accounts during the 
past five years. He at the same time addressed a 
letter to the secretary, which is interesting as show- 
ing his desire for active employment anywhere, 
and having probably led to his being ordered to 
the Lakes. It ran as follows : " I have instructed 
my friend, Mr. W. S. Rogers, to wait on you w^ith 
a tender of my services for the Lakes. There are 
fifty or sixty men under my command that are re- 
markably active and strong, capable of perform- 
ing any service. In the hope that I should have 
the honour of commanding them whenever they 
should meet the enemy, I have taken unwearied 
pains in preparing them for such an event. I beg 
therefore, sir, that we may be employed in some 
way in which we can be serviceable to our coun- 



120 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

try." He at the same time made an offer of his 
services to Commodore I. Chauncey, who had re- 
cently been appointed to command on the Lakes. 

In the course of Mr. Rogers's interview with the 
secretary, some conversation occurred about em- 
ploying Captain Perry on Lake Erie, to build and 
organize a squadron, to meet one which the enemy 
were about preparing on that lake. Nothing def- 
inite, however, was decided ; and, in a week after 
Perry's letter was written, the British frigate Ma- 
cedonian arrived as a prize to the frigate United 
States, and in charge of his old shipmate and 
friend, Lieutenant William H. Allen. He received 
him also with cordial congratulations, lent him 
every assistance in providing for the comfort of 
the wounded, and furnished him with thirty men 
to assist in navigating the ship to New-York. In 
announcing her arrival at his station, he expressed 
to the secretary his opinion that she was one of 
the finest frigates he had ever seen. He had no 
disposition to disparage the victories of others, 
though it caused him infinite grief that he was de- 
nied the opportunity of sharing them. 

Soon after it w^as decided to increase the navy 
by four hne-of-battle ships, six large frigates, and 
six sloops. He thought that commands of a high- 
er class being thus provided for those of his own 
grade that were above him, some of the sloops 
would- be left vacant. He had been so often dis- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 121 

appointed, however, that he was not very san- 
guine ; and, in writing to Captain Morns to an- 
nounce that he had sent him some men, and to 
describe the character of one petty officer whom 
he had sent, whom he thought would make a good 
gunner, he says to him, "Does the government 
intend building the ships immediately, or w411 it 
wait until timber seasons ? I despair of getting to 
sea very shortly, unless I should be fortunate 
enough to get the Hornet." 

In order to nourish the faint chance of employ- 
ment at sea which grew out of this contemplated 
advancement of his seniors, and, at the same time, 
to benefit his native state, to whose interests and 
welfare he was ever watchfully attentive, he now 
devoted himself to the task of obtaining accurate 
information as to the ship-building capabilities of 
his state. The result of his inquiries he reduced 
to a tabular form, stating in separate columns the 
quantity of suitable ship-timber, mines of iron ore, 
number of smeltiwg forges and trip-hammers, and 
of ship-carpenters, joiners, rope and sail makers, 
and all the various descriptions of artisans em- 
ployed in the construction and equipment of ships. 
He also mentioned the fact that there was a suffi- 
ciency of seasoned timber to construct a frigate, 
and that the mechanics, being unemployed, would 
work at low wages. ' 

In January of 1813 he received a serious annoy- 
L 



122 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

ance in learning the appointment of Lieutenant 
Allen, who had recently arrived in charge of the 
Macedonian, to the command of the brig Argus of 
twenty guns. This vessel had recently been com- 
manded by master-commandant Arthur Sinclair, 
who, on the termination of his cruise, had relin- 
quished the command of her. Commodore Deca- 
tur, who was senior officer afloat in New-York 
•when the Argus arrived, placed Lieutenant Allen 
on board of her when Captain Sinclair left her, 
in the hope that he would subsequently be pro- 
moted and confirmed in the command, which, in 
fact, proved to be the case. This infringement 
of his just rights, and violation of the solemn 
promise made to him at the commencement of the 
war by the then secretary of the navy, and which 
was equally binding on the gentleman who had 
recently succeeded him. Perry felt most sensibly, 
as is apparent from the following letter to the new 
secretary of the navy, Mr. William Jones. It is 
dated on the twenty-ninth of January, 1813. 

" I am informed by Lieutenant Allen that he 
has charge of the U. S. brig Argus, by order of 
Commodore Decatur. Although I have the high^ 
est opinion of Mr. Allen as an officer, and the 
warmest regard for him as a friend, yet justice to 
myself demands that I should solicit this vessel, 
provided Captain Sinclair is not to resume the 
command of her. On the first prospect of a dec- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 123 

laration of war, I hastened to Washington in the 
hope of obtaining active employment ; but, unfor- 
tunately, there was no vacancy. The honourable 
secretary of the navy, however, promised me the 
first one that should occur suitable to my rank ; 
none has occurred until the present. I therefore 
hope, sir, I may be gratified in being appointed to 
the Argus, as it is my earnest wish to have an op- 
portunity of showing my devotion to the cause of 
my country. Mr. Allen has already had an op- 
portunity of evincing his gallantry and good con- 
duct, and is in possession of the admiration and 
respect of his countrymen." 

On the same day he wrote to Captain Sinclair, 
stating the application he had made for the Argus, 
in the event only of Captain Sinclair's having en- 
tirely relinquished the command, as, in the contra- 
ly case, he had no wish whatever to interfere, but 
considered himself as standing next for the com- 
mand. He wrote also to Mr. J. B. Howell, then 
a senator in Congress from Rhode Island, to ex- 
plain the injustice which would be done to him by 
the appointment of his junior to the command of 
the Argus, and to procure his influence in aid of 
his claim. " Possessing," as he tells this gentle- 
man, " an ardent desire to meet the enemies of my 
country, I have earnestly solicited this situation, 
and beg you will back my application to be era- 
ployed in a manner more congenial to my feel- 



124 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

ings." His letter indicates an apprehension that 
some lingering distrust of him existed at the de- 
partment with regard to the loss of the Revenge ; 
for he forwarded a copy of the proceedings of the 
court of inquiry on the subject to Mr. Howel, with 
the expression of a hope that its perusal would 
satisfy him that no blame could attach to him from 
that unfortunate disaster. It gives pain thus to 
see Perry stooping to the office of self-\andication. 
To his friend Allen he frankly stated all that he 
had done, and forwarded to him a copy of his let- 
ter to the secretary on the same day that it was 
written. It is impossible to do otherwise than 
admire the noble magnanimity of his conduct 
throughout this transaction. His " ardent desire 
to meet the enemies of his country" does not al- 
low him for a moment to forget or disregard what 
was due to his brother officers ; the injustice which 
was about to be done to himself quickens his 
sense of the delicacy that was due to others. 

He had also indulged the hope of obtaining the 
command of the Hornet, in expectation of the prob- 
able promotion of Captain Lawrence, her com- 
mander ; but, shortly before her return from her 
successful cruise, during which she had captured 
the Peacock, the means of distinction had already 
been provided for Perry. On the first of Febru- 
ary, 1813, he received a letter from Commodore 
Chauncey, to whom, in the previous December, he 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 125 

had made a tender of his services, stating that he 
had appUed to the secretary of the navy to have 
him ordered to the Lakes. The commodore took 
occasion to pay Perry the following compliment, 
which plainly indicates that his character was al- 
ready recognised in the sen/ice, and understood by 
the commodore. " You are the very person," he 
writes, " that I want for a particular service, in 
which you may gain reputation for yourself and 
honour for your country." This particular service 
was the command of a naval force to be created 
on Lake Erie. In a few days he was advised by 
his friend Rogers that the new secretary of the 
navy, Mr. Jones, had readily consented to Com- 
modore Chauncey's request, and decided to order 
him to Lake Erie, with a detachment of the best 
men under his command at Newport. He was to 
build two heavy brigs on the lake to meet the force 
prepared by the enemy. " You will doubtless," 
wrote Mr. Rogers, " command in chief. This is 
the situation Mr. Hamilton mentioned to me tw^o 
months past, and which, I think, w^ill suit you ex- 
actly ; you may expect some warm fighting, and, 
of course, a portion of honour." 
L2 



126 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Perry ordered to the Lakes. — Sends off Crews of 
Flotilla. — Visits his Parents. — Goes to Albany. — 
Joins Commodore Chauncey. — Proceeds to Sack- 
etfs Harbour. — Rumoured attack from the Enemy, 
— Perry detained on Lake Ontario. — Ordered to 
Erie. — His Journey. — Rumour of an Attack on 
Erie. — Arrival at that Place. — Condition of the 
Squadron. — Difficulties of Equipment. — Perry vis- 
its Pittsburgh. — Returns to Erie. — Visits Niag. 
ara. — Storming of Fort George. — Perry's Account 
of it. — Perry ordered to Black Rock. — Flotilla 
manned by Soldiers. — Labour of ascending Rapids, 
— Arrival at Buffalo. — Passing the British Squad' 
ron. — Arrival at Erie. — Preparation of the Squad- 
ron. — Want of Men. — Ordered to co-operate with 
General Harrison. — Urgent Letters from Govern- 
ment and the General. — Letter of entreaty to the 
Commodore for Men. — Invites him to assume the 
Command on Erie. — Contemplated Attack of the 
Enemy on Erie.-^Perry receives small Re-enforce- 
ments. — Determines to sail in pursuit of the Enemy, 

On the seventeenth of February Captain Perry- 
received orders from the secretary of the navy to 
proceed to Sackett's Harbour with all the best men 
under his command in the flotilla. At that place 



OLIVER Hf^ZARD PERRY. 12'/ 

he was to receive farther instructions from Com- 
modore Chauncey with regard to his future pro- 
ceedings in command of the force to be created on 
Lake Erie. So prompt was he to execute these 
orders, and reach the scene where his friend had 
held out to him the prospect of hard fighting and 
an attendant harvest of honour, and so ready was 
the force under his command to move in any di- 
rection, that he sent off on that very day, notwith- 
standing the inclement season of the year, a de- 
tachment of fifty men and officers, under the com- 
mand of sailing-master Almy. They were to pro- 
ceed to Albany by the way of Providence. On 
the nineteenth he despatched fifty men, under sail- 
ing-master Champlin, and the remaining fifty on 
the twenty-first, under sailing-master W. V. Tay- 
lor. His object in thus dividing them was to in- 
crease the facility of procuring conveyances for 
the men and accommodation on the road. 

On the morning of the twenty-second of Febru- 
ary, a day of happy omen for the commencement 
of an American enterprise. Captain Perry deliv- 
ered up the command of the flotilla to the officer 
next in rank, and set forward on his journey to 
Sackett's Harbour. At that season of the year, 
and at that period in the settlement of the interior 
of our country, this was a journey of no little hard- 
ship and fatigue. He crossed the ferry to Narra- 
gansett in his boat during a violent rain storm, 



128 AMERICAN MOGRAPHY. 

and immediately proceeded to Pawcatuck, and 
thence to New-London and Lebanon ; his object 
in following this route being to visit his parents, 
who resided at the latter place, before his depart- 
ure on so perilous a service, and from which his 
return was so uncertain. After passing a few 
hours with his family, he departed for Hartford in 
the evening in an open sleigh, taking with him 
his brother Alexander, then a lad of less than 
twelve years. The cold was intense, and they 
suffered severely before their arrival at Hartford, 
which they only reached at midnight. There 
Captain Perry got on the mail-route to Albany, 
and made the rest of the journey in a somewhat 
more comfortable manner. 

Commodore Chauncey had come from Lake On- 
tario to New-York during the winter, and had 
written to Captain Perry from that place to direct 
him to repair forthwith to Sackett's Harbour, where 
he was urgently desirous of seeing him. As the 
commodore had not yet arrived at Albany, Cap- 
tain Perry determined to wait for him there, in 
order to be sooner made acquainted with his wish- 
es. At the end of three days the commodore ar- 
rived at Albany. In the afternoon of the same 
day, being the twenty-eighth of February, Cap- 
tain Perry set out for Sackett's Harbour, by dkec- 
tion of the commodore, who started at the same 
time, and arrived there on the evening of the third 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 129 

of March. The same night the alarm gun was 
fired to announce an attack. Captain Perry has- 
tened on board the Madison, where he found the 
crew at their quarters, and everything in good 
order. The commodore, who had also arrived 
during the night, made his appearance soon after. 
The alarm had been occasioned by a sentinel's 
firing at a person who attempted to pass his post 

It had been rumoured that an attack would be 
made on Sackett's Harbour, in order to destroy the 
squadron and the vessels on the stocks, so as to 
give the British the command of the lake during 
the approaching campaign. On this account Com- 
modore Chauncey detained Captain Perry with 
him until the sixteenth of March, notwithstanding 
his extreme desire to be at his post superintending 
the construction of his squadron. After having 
once or twice suggested the propriety of his pro- 
ceeding to his destination, the commodore at length 
told him that it was possible an attack might be 
made on the vessels in the harbour, in which case 
the commodore said he would like to have his as- 
sistance, and presumed he, Perry, would also wish 
to be there. This, Perry said, was conclusive. 

On the sixteenth of March, however, he receiv- 
ed orders to proceed to Erie, and hasten the equip- 
ment of the squadron then in process of construc- 
tion there. On the twenty-fourth he arrived at 
Buffalo, and, after having:; passed a day in exam- 



130 AMEEICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

ining the navy-yard at Black Rock, then under the 
command of Lieutenant Pettigru, and made ar- 
rangements for having stores forwarded to Erie, 
he set out on the tvv^enty-sixth in a sleigh, on the 
ice, for Erie. At Cattaraugus, where he passed the 
night, he learned from the keeper of the hotel in 
which he lodged that he had recently been on the 
Canada shore, where particular inquiries had been 
made as to the vessels to be constructed at Erie, 
and the force stationed there for their protection. 
The innkeeper inferred that an attempt would be 
made by the British to destroy the vessels when 
the ice should break up. 

In the evening of the twenty-seventh Perry 
reached Erie, and immediately called aro^d him 
the persons engaged in building and equipping the 
squadron. These were Mr. Noah Brown, of New- 
York, the master shipwright, and sailing-master 
Dobbins, who superintended the construction by 
direction of Commodore Chauncey.* He found 

* Mr. Noah Brown, the venerable builder of our fleet on 
Erie, after having contributed, by the construction of these and 
many other vessels of war, to the renown of our navy, and 
amassed, in the course of long years of prosperous industry, a 
handsome fortune, finds himself again, by the reverses so com- 
mon in our country, sent back, in his old age, to the starting- 
place from which he set out, and may now be seen working as 
a journeyman in our ship-yards, with a manly cheerfulness and 
proud independence of disposition which places him above and 
-leyond the reach of misfortune. More respected by the world 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 131 

that the keels of the two twenty-gun brigs were 
laid, and that two gunboats were nearly planked ; 
a third was ready also for planking. Captain Per- 
ry learned, equally to his astonishment and regret, 
that no arrangements had been made for bringing 
up such of the guns for the vessels as were to 
come from Buffalo and Black Rock, and that no 
orders on the subject had been received from the 
commodore. This was the more to be lamented, 
as the ice was already so weak as to render it im- 
possible to bring them up on it, and the roads 
were impassable for heavy cannon. No prepara- 
tion whatever had been made for the defence of 
these vessels had they been attacked ; there was 
not a single musket or cartridge in the possession 
of the officer who had been in charge, or, in fact. 
in the village ; and nothing would have been eas- 
ier, nor, as it afterw^ard proved, better worth atten- 
tion, than for the enemy to have destroyed the 
vessels. A party of fifty carpenters, which had 
been sent on from Philadelphia, had not yet ar- 
rived, though they had been four weeks on their 
journey. The twenty-five who came on with Mr. 
Brown had made the journey in a fortnight. Cap- 
tain Perry provided that very night for the mosr 

he might have been in his days of prosperity, but never more 
respectable than now. To this venerable man the writer is in- 
debted for interesting details as to the construction of the squad- 
ron on Erie. 



132 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

urgent of these wants, by hiring a guard of citi- 
zens to protect the vessels, which he organized and 
set on watch. He directed Mr. Dobbins to pro- 
ceed to Buffalo on the following day, and bring on 
forty seamen from the navy-yard ; also some mus- 
kets and cartridges, and, if possible, two twelve- 
pounders ; and wrote, before going to rest, to the 
navy-agent in Pittsburgh, to hurry on the missing 
carpenters the moment they should appear, and 
to forward a number of articles required by the 
builder. 

These deficiencies, and the distance from which 
they were to be supplied, convey a lively idea of 
the arduous nature of the undertaking with which 
Captain Perry had been intrusted ; that of creating 
a squadron in this remote and thinly-peopled re- 
gion. Mechanics, seamen, guns, sailcloth, almost 
everything necessary to the equipment of ships, 
had to be brought, at that season, a distance of 
five hundred miles, through a half-settled country, 
destitute of good roads, and but partially inter- 
sected by water communication. About one thou- 
sand pounds of iron was procured from Buffalo. 
The additional iron necessary for the construction 
of the vessels and for mounting their batteries 
was picked up by scraps in the neighbouring 
smithies, and welded together for the heavy work. 
Thus the pivot bolts of the carronades were made 
of three quarters of an inch iron. To perform the 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 133 

extra quantity of iron-work which the deficiency 
of large rods and bars occasioned, was attended 
with great difficulty. Five blacksmiths had been 
ordered from Philadelphia, and only two came, 
one of them being only a striker to the other. For- 
tunately, some blacksmiths were afterward found 
among the militia capable of doing the common 
work. 

Although m our own country, we were, in fact, 
farther from our resources on the Lakes than the 
English. To be sure the ocean intervened for 
them ; but the trouble of crossing it was as no- 
thing to this laborious and most costly transporta- 
tion. The power and ambition of England had 
long since accumulated in the Canadas every mu- 
nition of war, while our frontier was entirely des- 
titute of whatever was necessary for the construc- 
tion or armament of ships. If the contest were 
now to be repeated, we should enter it with far 
greater ability to meet and overpower our oppo- 
nents. While the facilities for the rapid transport- 
ation of the heaviest commodities have immeasur- 
ably increased, the development of the popula- 
tion, wealth, and power of our lake frontier would 
enable us to procure all the means of naval war- 
fare on the spot. Ships ready built, and seamen 
to navigate them, steamers, and all the elements 
of maritime power, would be found ready for em- 
ployment. 

M 



134 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

On the evening of the thirtieth of March, sail- 
ing-master W. V. Taylor arrived from Sacketf s 
Harbour with twenty officers and men. Captain 
Perry determined at once to leave Mr. Taylor in 
charge of the vessels at Erie, and proceed to Pitts- 
burgh in order to hasten on the carpenters, and 
procure some necessary stores which had not yet 
been obtained. He accordingly set out the next 
day, and arrived at Pittsburgh on the fourth of 
April. He immediately made arrangements for 
procuring canvass for the sails of his squadron 
from Philadelphia ; for an unnecessary delay had 
been incurred in order to discover whether the can^ 
vass could not be procured at Pittsburgh. Cap- 
tain Perry passed two days in visiting the work- 
shops of the different mechanics employed in work- 
ing for his squadron, and giving them minute di- 
rections as to the manner of preparing the articles 
that had been ordered, and with the manufacture 
of which they were wholly unacquainted. He 
also procured from Captain A. R. Woolley, the 
commissary of ordnance of the army, the loan of 
four small guns and some muskets for the defence 
of Erie, in case he should be disappointed in re- 
ceiving those he had ordered from Buffalo; an^ 
this gentleman also kindly volunteered to superin- 
tend the casting of the shot which would be re- 
quired for the squadron. He subsequently render- 
ed great assistance in supplying military stores fc 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 136 

the fleet, and received the warmest thanks of Per- 
ry. With regard to the carpenters, he found, to 
his annoyance, that, while they had passed on to 
Erie by land, their tools had been sent by water, 
and would not probably arrive so soon as they. 
The block-makers from Philadelphia had also got 
separated from their tools, which had not yet ar- 
rived. Having urgently impressed on the various 
persons engaged in supplying articles for the 
squadron the necessity of having them finished 
by the first of May, he set out from Pittsburgh on 
the seventh of April, and reached Erie on the 
tenth. He found the vessels much advanced in 
their construction since his departure, but the mus- 
kets and cartridges which he had ordered from 
Buffalo had not arrived, as they could not be pro- 
cured in that place. The forethought which had 
induced him to procure muskets and cannon at 
Pittsburgh, as an additional precaution for the de- 
fence of his vessels while building, was thus fully 
justified, and, ere long, he was able to prepare such 
ample means of resistance as to secure to the as- 
sailants a warm reception should they attempt the 
destruction of the vessels. At his earnest request, 
General Mead, the commanding officer in the 
neighbourhood, caused five hundred militia to be 
stationed at Erie to assist in its defence. 

Early in May the three gunboats were launched 
and equipped for service, and the two brigs, the 



136 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

keels of which were but just laid when Captain 
Perry arrived at Erie towards the close of March, 
were now nearly planked up, with the prospect of 
being ready to be launched in the course of three 
weeks. They were, in fact, launched on the twen- 
ty-fourth of May. The frames of the vessels were 
of white and black oak and chestnut, the out- 
side planking of oak, and the decks of pine. The 
trees were cut down on the spot, sawed up, and 
often, on the same day, became part of the ves- 
sels. The brigs were one hundred and forty-one 
feet in their greatest length, thirty feet beam; 
they measured about five hundred tons each, and 
were pierced for twenty guns. 

At this conjuncture Captain Perry made a sud- 
den visit to Lake Ontario. The occasion which 
called him there, and the circumstances which at- 
tended his visit, are briefly and sententiously de- 
scribed in a copy of a letter, probably to his pa- 
rents, left among his papers. As it is by far the 
most detailed account he has left of the affairs in 
which he took part, for he had an almost invinci- 
ble aversion to the use of his pen, and as the 
whole document, and the actions which it describes, 
are strikingly characteristic of the man, we can- 
not offer a higher gratification to the reader than 
by transcribing it, or furnish him with a truer idea 
of the subject of this biography. 

" On the evening of the twenty-third of May. ^ 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 137 

received information, about sunset, that Commo- 
dore Chauncey would in a day or two arrive at Ni- 
agara, when an attack would be made on Fort 
George. He had previously promised me the 
command of the seamen and marines that mio:ht 

to 

land from the fleet. Without hesitation, I deter- 
mined to join him. I left Erie about dark in a 
small four-oared open boat. The night w^as squal- 
ly and very dark. After encountering head winds 
and many difficulties, I arrived at Buffalo on the 
evening of the twenty-fourth, refreshed, and re- 
mained thexe until daylight; I then passed the 
whole of the British lines in my boat within mus- 
ket-shot. Passing Strawberry Island, several peo- 
ple on our side of the river hailed and beckoned 
me on shore. On landing, they pointed out about 
forty men on the end of Grand Island, who doubt- 
less w^ere placed there to intercept boats. In a 
few moments I should have been in their hands 
I then proceeded with more caution. As we ar- 
rived at Schlosser it rained violently. No horse 
could be procured. I determined to push forward 
on foot ; walked about two miles and a half, 
when the rain fell in such torrents I was obliged 
to take shelter in a house at hand. The sailors 
whom I had left w^ith the boat, hearing of public 
horses on the commons, determined to catch one 
for me. They found an old pacing one which 
could not run aw^ay, and brought him in, rigged 
M2 



138 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

a rope from the boat into a bridle, and borrowed 
a saddle without either stirrup, girth, or crupper. 
Thus accoutred, they pursued me, and found me 
at the house where I had stopped. The rain 
ceasing, I mounted ; my legs hung down the sides 
of the horse, and I was obliged to steady the sad- 
dle by holding by the mane. In this style I en- 
tered the camp, it raining again most violently. 
Colonel Porter being the first to discover me, in- 
sisted upon my taking his horse, as I had some 
distance to ride to the other end of the camp, off 
which the Madison lay. 

"After innumerable difficulties, I reached the 
ship on the evening of the twenty-fifth, most un- 
expectedly to the commodore and all the officers 
of the squadron, who were assembled to receive 
orders. The commodore appeared delighted to 
see me, shook me cordially by the hand, and ob- 
served that ' no person on earth at that particular 
time could be more welcome.' This remark he 
more than once repeated. As soon as we were 
alone he informed me of all his plans. They 
were really judicious, and I had nothing to offer 
in addition. In the morning, the commodore and 
myself, in the pilot-boat schooner Lady of the 
Lake, reconnoitred the enemy's batteries with 
care and attention, and made the necessary ar- 
rangements for the disposition of the vessels of 
the squadron. We then called on Geueral Dear- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 139 

born, and the commodore urged the necessity of 
an attack the next morning, to which the general, 
who appears to place unlimited confidence in the 
commodore, immediately assented, and issued the 
general order, which you will find published in the 
Buffalo Gazette of the seventh of June, signed by 
Winfield Scott, adjutant-general. The last clause 
places the landing of the troops under the direc- 
tion of Commodore Chauncey. The commodore 
informed General Dearborn, as well as generals 
Lewis, Boyd, Chandler, and Winder, that this duty 
would be performed by me. 

" In the afternoon the commodore asked me to 
go with him and see the different generals, and ar- 
range the plan of debarcation. We met them to- 
gether, when the commodore told them I was ap- 
pointed to superintend the landing of the troops ; 
with which they politely expressed their satisfac- 
tion. I asked the general if he would be so good 
as to explain how he wanted his men landed ; in 
fact, to show me his order of battle. I then could 
arrange the boats so as to place the troops on 
shore at any given time or place. He said really 
he had no order of battle more than the general 
order ; that he had only received that a few hours 
before, and had made no arrangements. I then 
endeavoured to show them the manner in which I 
thought the boats should be formed to land the 
troops with the most expedition, antJ so as to pre- 



140 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

vent loss ; which was, with the advance guard in 
one line, the boats being separated fifty feet ; each 
brigade formed in one line, with the same distance 
between the boats. By this means the fire of the 
enemy would not have such an effect as if the 
boats were in close order and in several lines. 
General Winder, who is their scientific man, had 
taken it into his head to advance with his brigade 
formed into three lines; and all the arguments 
the commodore and I could make use of could 
not convince him, although he said he would land 
as I might direct. Finding that they had no 
plan, that they hardly knew what they were go- 
ing at, when we had taken leave, I observed to the 
commodore I did not wish to have anything to do 
with them, as no credit could be gained ; the 
boats would be rowed by soldiers, who would 
know less than their generals, and that their mis- 
conduct, should any disaster happen, would attach 
to me. He agreed with me, and said he did not 
mean to place me in so awkward a situation ; that 
they might get on shore as they could. I, at the 
same time, told him I would go in with the ad- 
vanced guard, and assist Colonel Scott with my 
advice. Colonel M^Comb, who lives on board 
the ship with the commodore, and is really a sol- 
dier, and, at the same time, a modest man, came 
down from the general's quarters with us. Seeing 
me smile, he observed, * I see you are amused to 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 141 

Bee what system and order our generals observe. 
I wish to God the commodore commanded the 
army as well as the navy !' 

" It was eventually arranged that five hundred 
seamen and marines should be landed from the 
vessels, to be under my command, to act with Col- 
onel M'Comb's regiment. The seamen were only 
to use the boarding-pike. Thus we had every- 
thing arranged on our part. At three in the morn- 
ing we were called. It was calm, with a thick 
mist. At daylight the commodore directed the 
schooners to take the stations which had been pre- 
viously assigned them as soon as possible, and 
commence a fire upon the enemy's batteries. At 
the same time, he asked me if I would go on shore, 
see General Lewis, hurry the embarcation, and 
bring the general off with me. This I did. I 
found that many of the troops had not yet got 
into their boats. General Lewis accompanied me 
on board the Madison. General Dearborn had 
gone on board previously. The ship was under 
way, with a light breeze from the eastward, quite 
fair for us; a thick mist hangino; over Newark 
and Fort George, the sun breaking forth in the 
east, the vessels all under way, the lake covered 
with several hundred large boats, filled with sol- 
diers, horses, and artillery, advancing towards the 
enemy, altogether formed one of the grandest 
spectacles I ever beheld. The breeze now fresh- 



142 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

ened a little, which soon brought us opposite the 
town of Newark. The landing-place fixed upon 
was about two miles from the town, up the Ni- 
agara. The commodore, observing some of the 
schooners taking a wrong position, requested me 
to go in shore and direct them where to anchor. 
I immediately jumped into a small boat, and, in 
passing through the flat boats, I saw Colonel Scott, 
and told him I would be off to join him and ac- 
company him on shore. When I got on board 
the Ontario, I found her situation and the Asp's, 
and directed them to be got under way and an- 
chored at a place I pointed out to the commanding 
officers, where they could enfilade two forts. The 
enemy had no idea our vessels could come as near 
the shore as they did, many of them anchoring 
within half musket-shot. I pulled along the shore 
within musket-shot, and observed a situation where 
one of the schooners could act with great effect. 
I directed her commander to take it. This was so 
that he could play directly in the rear of the fort. 
On opening his fire, the consequence was such as 
I had imagined. The enemy could not stand to 
load their guns, and were obliged to leave the fort 
precipitately. I then pulled off to the ship, and, 
after conversing with the commodore and General 
Dearborn, and observing to the latter that the 
boats of the advanced guard were drifting to lee- 
ward very fast ; that they would, if not ordered 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 143 

immediately to pull to windward, fall too far to 
leeward to be under cover of the schooners, and 
would take those in the rear still farther to lee- 
ward, he begged of me to go and get them to 
windward. I jumped into my boat and pulled for 
the advanced guard, took Colonel Scott into my 
boat, and, with much difficulty, we convinced the 
officers and soldiers of the necessity of keeping 
more to windward. 

" As soon as we got them into a proper situa- 
tion, I pulled ahead for the schooner nearest in 
shore, and the advanced guard pushed for the 
shore. On getting alongside of the schooner, the 
man at the masthead told me the whole British 
army was rapidly advancing for the point of land- 
ing. Knowing many of the officers had believed 
the British would not make a stand, and, as they 
could not be seen by the boats, being behind a 
bank, I pulled as quick as possible to give Scott 
notice, that his men might not be surprised by the 
opening of the enemy's fire. He was on the right 
and the schooner on the left. This obliged me to 
pull the whole length of the line, and, as the boats 
were in no regular order, I had to pull ahead of 
one and astern of another. Before I got up to 
Scott, although within a boat or two, the enemy 
appeared on the bank and gave us a volley. 
Nearly the whole of their shot went over our 
heads. Our troops appeared to be somewhat con- 



144 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

fused, firing without order and without aim. I 
was apprehensive they would kill each other, and 
hailed them to pull away for the shore, many of 
their boats having stopped rowing. They soon 
recovered, and pulled for the shore with great 
spirit. General Boyd led his brigade on in a very 
gallant manner, under a very heavy fire, it having 
suffered more severely than any other. Fortu- 
nately, the enemy, from apprehension of the fire 
from the schooners, kept back until our troops 
were within fifty yards of the shore ; this deceived 
them, and their fire was thrown over our heads. 

" I remained encouraging the troops to advance 
until the first brigade landed, when, observing the 
schooners did not fire briskly, from the apprehen- 
sion of injuring our own troops, I went on board 
the Hamilton, of nine guns, commanded by Lieu- 
tenant Macpherson, and opened a tremendous fire 
of grape and canister. About the time I got on 
board the schooner, our troops had attempted to 
form on the bank; probably a hundred got up. 
They were obliged to retreat under the bank, 
where they were completely sheltered from the 
effect of the enemy's fire. The enemy could not 
stand the united effect of the grape and canister 
from the schooner, and of a well-directed fire from 
the troops, but broke and fled in great confusion, 
we plying them with round shot. Our troops then 
formed on the bank. General Lewis came on 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 145 

board the schooner from the ship at this time 
After waiting a few moments, and observing the 
disposition of things on shore, he landed. I land- 
ed at the same time." 

This document is suited to shed no little lustre 
on the fame of Perry, and to exhibit his conduct 
and character in a new and admirable light. It 
may also serve to show us what kind of generals 
we are likely again to have, if we abolish our 
present admirable nursery of officers in the mili- 
tary academy at West Point, and trust once more 
to Providence and inspiration in the hour of battle 
for the necessary insight into military affairs. It 
will also be observed, that the names of Scott and 
M'Comb, mentioned by Perry with approbation, 
became afterward well known to fame. We see 
from Perry's account, that, availing himself of 
a promise of Commodore Chauncey to give him 
the command of the seamen and marines on Lake 
Ontario in the event of a descent on the enemy's 
'territory, and of a moment when his presence at 
Erie could be dispensed with, he set out, volunta- 
rily and without an order, at a moment's warning, 
at the beginning of a dark and squally night, in a 
small boat, to make, a voyage of near one hun- 
dred miles over an inland sea subject to violent 
tempests. Arrived at Buffalo, we find him pursu- 
ing his adventurous course down the Niagara River, 
within musket-shot of the enemy's territory, and, 
N 



146 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY, 

after abandoning his boat near the Rapids, pursu- 
ing his way through the wilderness which skirted 
the bank, alone, on foot, and during a violent 
storm. It was thus, when the means of being use- 
ful were within his reach, that he manifested the 
" ardent desire to meet the enemies of his coun- 
try" which he had heretofore urged in his appli- 
cations for active employment. The facts which 
he states with regard to his own movements du- 
ring the attack on Fort George, show conclusively 
that its capture must have been in no inconsider- 
able degree owing to liis indefatigable exertions 
in every quarter, his imperturbable calmness and 
presence of mind, and quick military perceptions. 
He seems to have exercised no control over the 
movements and disembarcation of the troops, as 
had been originally intended, from a hopelessness 
of procuring a concert of action on the part of the 
generals, and an unwillingness to bear the respon- 
sibility of failure. When, however, he discovered 
them falling into disorder, and drifting to leeward 
of the appointed landing-place, he pointed it out 
to the commanding general, and, forgetting his 
previous scruples, readily undertook, at his re- 
quest, to remedy the evil. The ascendancy of a 
master mind was evident in the ready compUance 
which his directions met with, and in the way in 
•which the soldiery rallied to his cries of encour- 
agement. Invested at once with the authority of 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 147 

the general and commodore, and guided by the 
inspiration of an intuitive military conception, we 
find him hastily remodelling the order of the boats 
when in contact with the enemy, stationing anew 
the vessels where their fire would be most destruct- 
ive, directing it in person, and flitting from point 
to point, w^herever the circumstances of the day 
were critical or danger imminent. Commodore 
Chauncey, in his official report of the naval oper- 
ations of the day, did ample justice to the services 
of Captain Perry, in joining him from Erie and 
volunteering his services ; acknowledged the great 
assistance he had received from him in superin- 
tending the debarcation of the troops, and said of 
him, in conclusion, that " he was present at every 
point where he could be useful, under showers of 
musketry, but fortunately escaped unhurt." 

The capture of Fort George was attended by 
important consequences. It led almost immedi- 
ately to the evacuation, by the British, of their 
whole frontier on the Niagara. Both banks being 
now in our possession, we were left in complete 
control of the navigation of the river. One of 
the fruits of this advantage was, that Captain Per- 
y could now remove into Lake Erie five small 
vessels belonging to the government, which hith- 
erto had been detained at Black Rock by the 
enemy's batteries on the Canada snore. He was 
despatched on this service by Commodore Chaun- 



148 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY 

cey on the twenty-eighth of May, with a party of 
officers and fifty seamen. The vessels had recent- 
ly been fitted for service by Mr. Eckford, the na- 
val constructor on Lake Ontario. One of them 
was the Caledonia, which Lieutenant Elliott had 
surprised and taken from the enemy some months 
before. The others had been purchased by him, 
in a situation where they could only become of 
use in the event of the enemy being driven from 
the opposite shore. This event, which could have 
been by no means certain, having actually oc- 
curred. Captain Perry was now able to remove 
these vessels into Lake Erie. The task, though 
unopposed by the enemy, was, however, one of 
no little difficulty. He was obliged to drag the 
vessels most laboriously against the current of 
the Niagara, which varied in strength from five to 
seven knots, by the aid of oxen and the exertions 
of his seamen, assisted by two hundred soldiers, 
under the command of captains Brevoort and 
Young, lent by General Dearborn to assist in de- 
fending and navigating the vessels to Erie. 

Having taken on board all the stores in the 
navy-yard at Black Rock, the vessels were track- 
ed up the current; a toilsome task, which occu- 
pied near a fortnight, and of which, in writing to 
Commodore Chauncey, he pronounced the fatigue 
" almost incredible." On the evening of the four- 
teenth of June, he set sail from Buffalo for Erie. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 149 

His little squadron consisted of the brig Caledonia, 
of three long twenty-four's, the schooners Somers, 
of two long thirty-two's, Tigress and Ohio, of one 
twenty-four pounder each, and the sloop Trippe, 
of one long thirty-two. The enemy having sever- 
al years before commenced the creation of a naval 
force on Lake Erie, had, at the time, the complete 
command of the lake, on which it possessed a 
commissioned force more than six times greater 
than that with which Captain Perry was about to 
proceed to Erie in order to join the vessels in pro- 
cess of equipment there. The British force on the 
lake was commanded by Captain Finnis, a com- 
mander in the royal navy, and consisted of the 
ship Queen Charlotte, of four hundred tons and 
seventeen guns, the schooner Lady Prevost, of two 
hundred and thirty tons, mounting thirteen guns, 
the brig Hunter, of ten guns, the schooners Little 
Belt, of three guns, and Chippeway, of one gun. 
To remove our insignificant flotilla from Buffalo to 
Erie, in the face of such an overpowering force, 
was a task of difficulty, requiring no little vigil- 
ance and address. By a skilful display of these 
qualities, Captain Perry succeeded, though nar- 
rowly watched, opposed by contrary winds, and 
suffering from serious indisposition, in getting his 
vessels past the enemy and safely into the harbour 
of Erie, off which the enemy have in sight as he 
N2 



150 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

was going in on the evening of the eighteenth.* 
The British squadron and our flotilla had been in 
sight together during the day from Chatauque, 
about twenty miles from Erie ; but the insignifi- 
cance of our vessels had enabled them to pass un- 
observed. 

The business of equipping the squadron now 
went rapidly forward ; but, as yet. only one hun- 
dred and ten officers and men had arrived, inclu- 
ding those brought up by the flotilla. 

On Perry's arrival at Erie he found a letter 
from the secretary of the navy, highly compli- 
mentary of his conduct in the landing at Fort 
George, and of his exertions in preparing the 
force on Lake Erie. In reply, while he expressed 
a becoming sense of the responsibility of his situ- 
ation, and doubts of his capacity to meet the ex- 
pectation of the government. Perry assured the 
secretary of his ardent desire to possess the fa- 
vourable opinion of the government and of his 
countrymen, and that no diligence or exertion of 
which he was capable should be wanting to pro- 
mote the honour of the service. He informed the 
secretary that one of the brigs was completely 
rigged and had her battery mounted, the other 
would be equally far advanced in a week; the 
sails of both vessels were nearly completed, and, 

* Mr. Cooper says Perry did not leave Buffalo until the end 
of June, 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 151 

on the arrival of the shot and anchors from Pitts- 
burgh, from which they were confidently expected 
soon, all the vessels would be ready for service in 
one day after the reception of the crews. 

From fatigue and exposure in getting his flotilla 
from Black Rock to Buffalo, and want of rest 
while passing the enemy on the lake, added to the 
effects of the climate, Captain Perry now became 
still more seriously indisposed. Many of his men 
were in the same condition. Writing to the com- 
modore on the twenty-seventh of June, he tells 
him, " from sickness and other causes, we cannot 
muster more than fifty or sixty men who are of 
any service to us ; these work almost day and 
night." Fortunately, Perry soon recovered suffi- 
ciently to attend to his urgent duties, though his 
health continued feeble while he remained on the 
lakes, and his exertions, of course, the more labori- 
ous. Of the fifty sick at this time, a considerable 
portion w^ere the wounded and infirm from Black 
Rock. He considered thirty out of his one hun- 
dred and ten men not only entirely useless at the 
time, but likely to continue so. 

On the tenth of July Captain Perry received a 
letter from General Dearborn, stating that he had 
explicit directions from the secretary of war to 
order the detachment of two hundred soldiers un- 
der Captain Brevoort, which had been lent to the 
squadron on Lake Erie, to return to Fort George, 



152 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

and requesting that they might be immediately 
sent to him. At the same time, he kindly offered 
that Captain Brevoort might remain attached to 
the squadron, if it were agreeable both to Captain 
Perry and to himself, as his familiarity with the 
navigation of Lake Erie and the upper lakes 
might render him peculiarly useful. Captain Bre- 
voort had been more than a year employed in 
navigating the brig Adams, employed by the war 
department in the transportation of military stores. 
This vessel had been captured by the British at 
Detroit, and called by them after the place where 
she was taken. The detachment was accordingly 
sent to Buffalo on the following day, under Cap- 
tain Younge ; and the boats which took the party 
down were left to bring up the officers and men, 
now so anxiously expected from Lake Ontario, to 
man the squadron. Captain Brevoort remained 
to command the marines of the Niagara. To sup- 
ply, in some measure, the deficiency occasioned 
by the withdrawal of the soldiers. Lieutenant J. 
Brooks, of the marine corps, was occupied in re- 
cruiting at Erie. He had previously brought on a 
small detachment recruited by him in Pittsburgh,* 
and eventually succeeded in enlisting thirty ma- 
rines. 

On the twelfth of July Perry received and com- 
municated to his officers the official news of the 
capture of the Chesapeake, and the death of her 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 153 

lant commander and a number of his officers, 
together with the customary order to wear mourn- 
ing. There had been much, however, in the 
quenchless heroism of Lawrence to sooth the 
painful feelings and gratify the pride of his coun- 
trymen. In his dying injunction, " Don't give up 
the ship," he bequeathed a watchword which was 
yet to herald them to victory. That his memory 
Avas not coupled with discouragement was soon 
after evinced by an order from the navy depart- 
ment to give his name to one of the brigs ; and 
that which Perry had fixed on for his own was 
called the Lawrence. The other was called the 
Niagara. 

Only five days after being called upon to relin- 
quish the two hundred men which constituted the 
main force of his squadron, he received instruc- 
tions to co-operate with General Harrison, com- 
mander-in-chief of the northwestern army, in 
support of the military movements which he was 
making for the recovery of the territory of Michi- 
gan, and the invasion of Upper Canada. This or- 
der of the secretary's presupposed that the squad- 
r.on at Lake Erie was ready for active service; 
and, of course, the issue of the necessary orders 
on the part of the government for officering and 
manning the squadron. These had actually been 
given to Com.modore Chauncey, who commanded 
on Lake Erie as well as Lake Ontario, and the 



154 AMERICAN BIOGR.APHY. 

necessary officers and men placed at his disposal ; 
but so absorbed was he in the interest of his im- 
mediate command, that the officers and men sent 
to him for distribution throughout the naval force 
subject to his orders, were retained almost exclu- 
sively where he was himself present. It seems to 
have been his intention to detain the crews until 
the vessels on Lake Erie were ready to sail, in the 
hope of being able, in the mean time, to overpower 
the enemy on Lake Ontario, and then repeat the 
same process in person on Lake Erie. But, inde- 
pendently of the disadvantage of keeping officers 
and men strangers to each other and to the vessels 
in which they were to sail until the moment they 
were to be engaged, it was expecting almost a 
miracle that the vessels should be equipped in so 
short a time by such a small number of men. But, 
strange as it may seem, by the unremitting zeal 
and exertions of the youthful commander, desti- 
tute almost entirely of subordinate officers, such as 
boatswains and gunners, and attending personally 
to the minutest details ; and by the unceasing ef- 
forts of a handful of men, reduced by sickness 
both in numbers and strength, and sadly over- 
worked, yet strangers to murmuring and almost 
without an attempt to desert, the vessels were now 
rigged, armed, and ready for service. A consid- 
erable part of the shot had arrived from Pitts- 
burgh I the anchors, which had not yet been re- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 155 

ceived, were confidently expected in a week. On 
the day that Perry received these orders to co-op- 
erate with General Harrison, he wrote to Commo- 
dore Chauncey to communicate them, and ex- 
pressed his confident assurance that the squadron 
would be ready, in all other respects, for service 
so soon as the necessary men could reach him. 
" I cannot," he says, " express to you the anxiety 
I feel respecting them." He also stated his great 
desire to have the services of the oflficers who 
were to join him, and especially of the commander 
of the second brig. 

Having received an intimation that the men 
would soon be on their way — for he heard very 
seldom from Commodore Chauncey, and was chief- 
ly indebted to rumour for a knowledge of his 
movements — he despatched a sailing-master to 
Buffalo on the eighteenth of July, with two boats, 
to be joined to the two which had been sent down 
with the detachment of troops, and w^ith such 
others as could be procured, suflficient in number 
to bring up three hundred and fifty men, which 
was the number which Captain Perry expected 
from Lake Ontario to complete his crews. The 
oflficer was directed to use great vigilance in re- 
turning with the men, on account of the enemy's 
squadron, which was almost daily in sight off' 
Erie, and might be considered as blockading the 
port ; he was to keep close in shore, and call at 



156 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

two designated rendezvous, Chatauque and the 
Twenty-mile Creek, by the way, in order to re- 
ceive instructions for his government. About this 
time we find him informing General Harrison, on 
the nineteenth of July, that he had at that date 
one hundred and twenty officers and men fit for 
duty, and more than fifty on the sick list. 

On the nineteenth of July Captain Perry re- 
ceived a second order from the secretary of the 
iiavy, evidently written under the belief that the 
squadron was manned, to co-operate with General 
Harrison. He had also received repeated com- 
munications from General Harrison with regard to 
his own critical situation, setting forth the impor- 
tant relief that the co-operation of the squadron 
would afford him, and urging the favourableness 
of the moment to strike a blow at the enemy's 
squadron before he should launch his new ship, 
the Detroit, which would turn the balance, and 
give the enemy a considerable superiority. The 
enemy had quite recently been strengthened by 
the arrival of Captain Barclay, a very distinguish- 
ed officer, who had served under Nelson, and been 
with him at Trafalgar, to assume the chief com- 
mand. He had also brought a number of experi- 
enced officers and a party of prime seamen. Still 
our squadron was for the moment superior in num- 
ber of guns, and the vessels being now ready for 
service, had the crews been at hand, might have 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 157 

gone out with a confident hope of capturing the 
enemy. This hope Captain Perry expressed to 
the secretary of the navy in reply. He mentioned 
that the enemy were then off the harbour, and 
that, the moment a sufficient number of men ar- 
rived, he would be able to sail, and trusted that 
the issue of the contest would be favourable. 
He could only state to the secretary that he 
had but one hundred and twenty men fit for ser- 
vice, in addition to fifty sick; and oflfer to Gen- 
eral Harrison the same reason for his inability 
to co-operate with him. The situation of Cap- 
tain Perry, and the bitter mortification which it 
occasioned him, can be best learned from the fol-» 
lowing urgent friendly appeal to the feelings of 
Commodore Chauncey. 

"DearSir, 
" The enemy's fleet of six sail are now off the 
bar of this harbour. What a golden opportunity 
if we had men ! Their object is no doubt either 
to blockade or attack us, or to carry provisions 
and re-enforcements to Maiden. Should it be to 
attack us, we are ready to meet them. I am con- 
stantly looking to the eastward ; every mail and 
every traveller from that quarter is looked to as 
the harbinger of the glad tidings of our men be- 
ing on their way. Ilam fully aware how much 
your time must be occupied with the important 
O 



158 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

concerns of the other lake. Give me men, sir, 
and I will acquire both for you and myself honour 
and glory on this lake, or perish in the attempt. 
Conceive my feelings ; an enemy within striking 
distance, my vessels ready, and not men enough 
to man them. Going out with those I now have 
is out of the question. You would not suffer it 
were you here. I again ask you to think of my 
situation ; the enemy in sight, the vessels under 
my command more than sufficient, and ready to 
make sail, and yet obliged to bite my fingers wuth 
vexation for want of men. I know, my dear sir, 
full well, you will send me the crews for the ves- 
-sels as soon as possible 5 yet a day appears an 
age. I hope that the wind or some other cause 
wdll delay the enemy's return to Maiden until my 
men arrive, and / will have them.^' 

Two days after this letter was written, the enemy 
were becalmed off the harbour. Captain Perry 
immediately pulled out with three gunboats to 
endeavour to annoy them. He was only able to 
exchange a few shots with them, one of which 
struck the mizzen-mast of the Queen Charlotte, 
when a breeze springing up, they stood off. On 
the twenty-third of July Captain Perry received 
another communication from the secretary of the 
navy, urging upon him th^ importance of captu- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 159 

ring or destroying the enemy's squadron. Captain 
Perry replied that he was fully aware of the im- 
portance of this object. That his ships were 
ready, but that he was without crews. He told 
the secretary that he could not describe to him the 
mortification which his situation occasioned him. 
Had the secretary, who had been so often informed 
of Captain Perry's deficiencies in this respect, 
ceased to depend upon the circuitous and reluctant 
transmission of seamen from Lake Ontario, after 
they had undergone what was familiarly known 
as " a Sackett's Harbour examination," he might 
have sent any number of officers and seamen di- 
rect from Philadelphia in less time than they could 
be forwarded from Sackett's Harbour. A little 
self-dependance, and a determination which would 
have cost but a moment's reflection and the dash 
of a pen on the part of the secretary, would have 
saved all this trouble and delay, and the jeopardy 
of important national interests. But the history 
of no country could probably furnish more abun- 
dant instances of official imbecility and misman- 
agement than ours. This has ever been most ap- 
parent in whatever relates to the navy. 

At length, on the twenty-third of July, Captain 
Perry received a re-enforcement of seventy men 
and officers, and immediately wrote in the follow- 
ing friendly terms to Commodore Chauncey : 



160 american biography. 

" My dear Sir, 
" I have this moment had the very great pleas- 
ure of receiving yours by Mr. Champhn, with the 
seventy men. The enemy are now off this har- 
bour with the Queen Charlotte, Lady Prevost, 
Chippeway, Erie, and Friend's Good Will. My 
vessels are all ready. For God's sake, and yours, 
and mine, send me men and officers, and I will 
have them all in a day or two. Commodore Bar- 
clay keeps just out of the reach of our gunboats. 
I am not able to ship a single man at this place. 
I shall try for volunteers for our cruise. Send on 
the commander, my dear sir, for the Niagara. She 
is a noble vessel. Woolsey, Brown, or Elliott I 
should like to see amazingly.* I am very defi- 
cient in officers of every kind. Send me officers and 

* Captain Elliott has caused to be inserted in the life of him- 
self the following passage : " So fully impressed was he (Com- 
modore Perry) with the belief that Captain Elliott was the very 
man for the purpose, that he wrote to Commodore Chauncey, 
* Send me Captain Elliott and one hundred men, and I will en- 
gage to beat the British.' " No such passage as this exists 
in the original letter-book of Perry's Lake Erie command, in 
which all his letters to Commodore Chauncey, official and serai- 
official, are carefully copied. Captain Elliott was then only 
a lieutenant, and is written of by Perry as Lieutenant Elliott 
several weeks later than the date of this letter. Instead of 
" Send me Captain Elliott and one hundred men, and I will 
engage to beat the British," which is so unlike Perry's mode 
of expressing himself, we find only in his correspondence, 
"Woolsey, Brown, or Elliott I should like to see amazingly." 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 161 

men, and honour is within our grasp. The ves- 
sels are all ready to meet the enemy the moment 
they are officered and manned. Our sails are 
bent, provisions on board, and, in fact, everything 
is ready. Barclay has been bearding me for sev- 
eral days ; I long to have at him. However anx- 
ious I am to reap the reward of the labour and 
anxiety I have had on this station, I shall rejoice, 
whoever commands, to see this force on the lake, 
and surely I had rather be commanded by my 
friend than by any other. Come, then, and the 
business is decided in a few hours. Barclay shows 
no disposition to avoid the contest." 

This was, indeed, a touching appeal to the gen- 
erosity of Chauncey, which might well have been 
awakened by that which Perry displayed in ten- 
dering to him the fruits of his exertions, a triumph 
prepared by his own unparalleled toils and un- 
ceasing anxiety. Though Lake Erie was as much 
within the command of Commodore Chauncey as 
Lake Ontario, he did not probably like to leave 
his more extensive command on Lake Ontario, in 
the presence of an active and ingenious enemy. 
Otherwise he might easily have repaired to Lake 
Erie with such a re-enforcement of officers and 
men as would have secured his triumph on that 
lake, and subsequently brought back with him the 
means of obtaining a second triumph on Lake On- 

oa 



162 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

tario. Commodore Chauncey did indeed intend 
to assume in person the command of the force on 
Lake Erie, but postponed the time until after he 
should have first beaten the enemy on Lake On- 
tario. 

A consideration of the state of the war on our 
northern and northwestern frontier at this particu- 
lar period might well authorize the opinion that 
Commodore Chauncey would have been justified 
in taking advantage of Perry's generous offer, con- 
ceived in the true spirit of patriotism and devotion 
to the welfare of his country, and repairing to 
Lake Erie with a sufficient force of officers and 
men to decide the contest for superiority immedi- 
ately in our favour. The fate of General Harri- 
son's army was entirely dependant upon that of 
our squadron on Lake Erie. The British, being 
victorious by land and water on our northwestern 
frontier, would have found themselves at once at 
the head of our great navigable rivers, in a situa- 
tion to descend into the heart of our country, and 
give it over to devastation and all the horrors of 
savage warfare, from which the territory of Mich- 
igan was then fatally suffering. Had Commodore 
• Chauncey left Lake Ontario temporarily, his suc- 
cessor could have imitated the defensive policy 
hitherto pursued by the enemy. In the interest 
of the fame of Perry, we cannot but rejoice that 
Commodore Chauncey should have declined re- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 163 

pairing to Lake Erie. Had he gone, it could 
scarcely have been better for the country — it 
•would have been sadly in abatement of the fame 
of Perry. 

About this time, a concentration of the enemy's 
troops about Long Point, which lies opposite to 
Erie on the Canada shore, at a distance of only 
thirty miles, and the disappearance of the British 
squadron in the same direction, led to the belief 
that an attack on Erie was intended, with a view 
to the capture or destruction of Perry's squadron 
before the arrival of his crews, and of the military 
stores collected at Erie to be embarked on board 
of the squadron for the use of the northwestern 
army. Captain Perry called on Major-general 
Meade of the militia for a re-enforcement of 
troops, and made every necessary preparation for 
the reception of the enemy. The officers were all 
kept on board, and boats rowed guard throughout 
the night. Great consternation prevailed among 
the villagers, who hastened to send their families 
and valuables to the interior. Perry acquainted 
the secretary of the navy and the commodore with 
the fact of his being menaced with an attack, and 
having taken measures to repel it, assuring them 
that he had no fears for the vessels, even if the en- 
emy should get possession of the town,- which he 
considered unlikely. It was subsequently known 
from Commodore Barclay that an attack had, in 



164 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

fact, been at this time contemplated and matured, 
but failed through the want of a sufficient sus- 
taining force of troops at the proper moment. 

On the twenty-seventh of July, Captain Perry 
received a letter by express from assistant adju- 
tant-general Holmes, informing him, by order of 
General Harrison, that the enemy had invested 
Fort Meigs a second time w^ith a heavy force. He 
stated that the presence of the enemy's squadron 
off Erie was considered most unfortunate, unless 
Captain Perry should be able either to fight or 
elude it; and that he was directed to recom- 
mend it, as the general's opinion, that it should be 
Captain Perry's great object to co-operate imme- 
diately with the army by sailing up Lake Erie. 
If this co-operation could be effected, the enemy 
would be compelled either to retreat precipitately, 
or suffer the ultimate necessity of surrendering. 
The adjutant-general concluded his letter as fol- 
lows : " I feel great pleasure in conveying to you 
an assurance of the general's perfect conviction 
that no exertion will be omitted on your part to 
give the crisis an issue of profit and glory to the 
arms of our country."* 

* In Mr. Hambleton's journal the following remark occurs on 
the twenty-seventh of July. "The first application for men was on 
the twentieth of May. Had they been furnished, we might have 
been out several weeks ago, and the necessity of again calling 
out the militia at this busy season would have been avoided. 
The command of the two lakes is too extensive for any one man." 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 165 

Here was new evidence of the importance at- 
tached to his early co-operation with the north- 
western army, and of the responsibiUty which 
weighed upon him ; new stimulus to his ardent 
desire to meet the enemy, and new subject for 
mortification, that, while supposed everywhere to 
be ready to act, and pressed on all sides to put 
forth on the lake, he was yet unable to move for 
want of men. He mentioned to the general, in 
reply, his inexpressible mortification at his deficien- 
cy of officers and men ; stated that he had, some 
days before, sent an express to Commodore Chaun- 
cey, urging him to send the crews immediately ; 
and that he had now forwarded him a copy of the 
general's letter, accompanied by a still more ur- 
gent request to the same eflfect. 

His urgent letter to Commodore Chauncey was 
in the following words; and it is interesting, 
inasmuch as it drew from the commodore a re- 
ply which occasioned Perry to request to be re- 
moved from Lake Erie. 

" Sir, 
" I have this moment received by express the 
enclosed letter from General Harrison. If I had 
officers and men, and I have no doubt you will 
send them, I could fight the enemy, and proceed 
up the lake. But, having no one to command the 
Niagara, and only one commissioned lieutenant 



166 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

and two acting lieutenants, whatever my wishes 
may be, going out is out of the question. The 
men that came by Mr. Champhn are a motley set, 
blacks, soldiers, and boys. I cannot think you 
saw them after they w^ere selected. I am, how- 
ever, pleased to see anything in the shape of a 



On the thirtieth of July he received from Lake 
Ontario an additional re-enforcement of sixty of- 
ficers and men. Two days after he opened a 
rendezvous for landsmen, to serve four months, 
or until after a decisive battle, at ten dollars a 
month. He thus carried the total of his force, 
after landing the confirmed invalids, to about three 
hundred officers and men, to man two twenty- 
gun brigs and eight smaller vessels, mounting 
together fifteen guns, and making an aggregate 
of fifty-five guns. These men were, moreover, 
in genera], of the most inferior description, con- 
stituting the refuse of all that had arrived on 
Lake Ontario; many of them debilitated by re- 
cent disease, and more than a fifth of them in- 
capacitated by fevers and dysentery from any 
duty. With regard to officers, the above letter to 
Commodore Chauncey shows how deficient he 
was. In fact, he stated to the secretary of the 
navy, in a letter of the thirtieth of July, that he 
had not sufficient officers of experience even to 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 167 

navigate the vessels. Nevertheless, in view of the 
critical situation of the northwestern army, and of 
all that was expected from him by those who were 
unacquainted with his deficiencies ; stimulated by 
his impatience under the daily " bearding" of 
Commodore Barclay, who was almost perpetually 
in sight, with his colours displayed in defiance ; and 
beginning, perhaps, to have more doubt than he 
had expressed that Commodore Chauncey would 
send him the deficient officers and men, he deter- 
mined to set sail with those that he had, and such 
volunteers as he could procure from the army, and 
put all to the issue of a battle, which he was es- 
pecially anxious should be fought before the ene- 
my's squadron should be re-enforced by his new 
and heavy ship the Detroit, which had been 
launched on the seventeenth of July, and might 
soon be expected to appear on the lake, and 
which would give to the enemy a great superiori- 
ty in tonnage as well as in number of guns. 

In estimating the hardihood of Perry's determi- 
nation to fight at once with a squadron but half 
manned with the worst materials, and these half 
crews farther reduced by sickness, we must also 
take into consideration that there could have been 
but little leisure for exercising the guns or training 
the boarders, pikemen, sail-trimmers, and firemen to 
the various duties essential to the offensive and de- 
fensive operations of a naval engagement. Wlien 



168 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

the able-bodied men of the squadron were kepi 
working incessantly almost by day and night, hu- 
manity, as well as the duty of preserving them from 
utter exhaustion, forbade any exertion, however es- 
^ sential, not connected with the urgent occupations 
of the moment. Still opportunity had been found, 
during the last few days that the squadron remain- 
ed within the harbour of Erie, to station the crews 
carefully at quarters, and to give them a general 
idea of all their duties. During several hours of 
each of these days the men were exercised thor- 
oughly at the guns, and Perry went round in per- 
son to see that each man understood his peculiar 
duty; that the evolutions for loading and firing 
were properly performed ; the arrangements per- 
fect for passing powder without risk or confusion ; 
and that the tubes, matches, and powder-horns 
were in readiness for service. The commander 
who delegates these duties to others, who fails to 
attend in person to whatever concerns the fighting 
department of his vessel, may fatally regret his 
misplaced confidence in the hour of battle. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 169 



CHAPTER Vn. 

Mise of Naval Armaments on Erie. — Character of 
the Lake. — Nature of Harbours.-— Erie well cho- 
sen for Building our Squadron. — Difficulty of 
Crossing the Bar. — Judicious Preparations. — 
Labour of getting the Lawrence over. — Enemy 
appear off the Harbour. — Disappear. — Our 
Squadron on the open Lake. — Prepare for Battle. 
— Sail in Pursuit. — Return to Erie. — Arrival of 
Re -enforcements. — Letter from Commodore Chaun- 
cey. — Perry considers it insulting, — Tenders 
Resignation of his Command. — Commodore Chaun- 
cey promises Marines. — Reserves them for his oum 
Ship. — Squadron sails for Sandusky. — Visit from 
General Harrison. — Perry goes off Maiden. — 
Offers Battle. — Anchors in Put-in Bay. — Illness 
of Perry. — Receives Re-enforcements. — Recovers, 
— Visits Maiden and Sandusky. — Reproachful 
Letter from Secretary. — Perry's Defence, 

Lake Erie, about to become the scene of great 
national events, had hitherto been only navigated 
by our countrymen in pursuit of commerce. The 
canoe of the savage or the light bark of the 
trader had almost alone traversed its hitherto 
peaceful surface. But now war was to visit it, 
and the solitudes of nature, as yet accustomed 
P 



170 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

only to reverberate the thunders of Heaven, were 
to be disturbed by the more terrible engines of hu- 
man wrath. The American Fur Company had, 
in recent years, constructed one or two vessels for 
the purpose of transporting the articles which it 
trafficked with the Indians for peltries to the head 
of navigation at the upper lakes, and bringing 
down its valuable returns. These vessels had a 
slight armament. The Northwestern Company, 
on the other side of the lake, had also armed ves- 
sels of considerable size. More recently, the Brit- 
ish government had built several vessels, especial- 
ly intended for cruisers, to give them the command 
of the lake in the event of a war with the United 
States. The Queen Charlotte had been built with 
this view as early as 1808, and some of the small 
vessels at an earlier period. These vessels were 
originally manned with provincial seamen, and 
officered likewise by provincials belonging to a 
special corps disconnected from the royal navy. 
They had cruised a good deal on the lake, were 
familiar with its coasts, and practised in the man- 
agement of their vessels. In several trifling en- 
counters, and particularly in annoying General 
Hull's army while in Canada, this provincial force 
had exhibited great skill and enterprise. 

With regard to this new arena of naval war- 
fare almost in the heart of the wilderness, it may b' 
well briefly to state that the lake is about two hun 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 171 

dred and eighty miles long from the outlet of the 
Miami to the Falls of Niagara, with a breadth vary- 
ing from fifteen to sixty miles, and a depth scarce- 
ly anywhere exceeding twenty fathoms. Its shores 
are generally sandy or rock-bound, and there- 
fore dangerous to the navigator. On the northern 
shore, the extraordinary course of the Thames Riv- 
er, running nearly parallel to the course of the 
lake, at no great distance and in the contrary direc- 
tion to its current, cuts off all the streams, and ac- 
counts for the almost total absence on that side of 
inlets and harbours. On the American side the har- 
bours are more numerous, but all of them have 
bars except that of Put-in Bay in the Bass Islands, 
which is accessible for vessels drawing twelve feet. 
At the mouth of the Sandusky there was a pretty 
good harbour, but that at Erie was much better. Its 
comparative proximity, moreover, to the populous 
portion of Pennsylvania, and especially the great 
manufacturing town of Pittsburg, between which 
and the neighbourhood of Erie there was an al- 
most uninterrupted, though tedious, water commu- 
nication by the Alleghany and its tributaries, gave 
it great advantages for the equipment of a naval 
force. Besides, being situated towards the centre 
of the lake, which became broad at that point, it 
rendered the squadron less exposed there to a sur- 
prise and destruction by the enemy than it would 
have been at Buffalo, which, in fact, was taken 



172 AMEHICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

and burned in the course of the war. Buffalo, too, 
at that time had no good harbour, that which now 
exists there being almost entirely a work of art. 
Erie, on the contrary, had a beautiful natural har- 
bour, consisting of a bay, very narrow at the en- 
trance, but expanding into a spacious sheet of wa- 
ter within. This bay is formed by a peninsula, 
extending in the form of a crab's claw in a north- 
easterly direction along the shore of the lake. 
From this remarkable point of land, the place had 
received from the French its previous name of 
Presquisle. Across the mouth there was a bar, 
extending lakeward upward of a mile, and vary- 
ing in depth in the channel from six feet at the 
shoalest part to ten feet. The shoal, being formed 
of light sand, was liable to be affected by gales of 
wind, which occasioned it frequently to vary, and 
sometimes reduced the depth as low as five and 
even four feet. 

This bar, being too shoal for the enemy to cross 
it with his vessels equipped and armed, had offer- 
ed great protection to our squadron from attack 
during its construction and equipment. Now, 
however, that the squadron was ready to sail, it be- 
came a serious impediment, inasmuch as it would 
be indispensable to raise the two brigs bodily at 
least four feet higher than their usual draught 
of nine feet, in order to enable them to pass the 
bar. This, of course, could only be done by the 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 173 

removal of their armament, and in smooth water; 
and as it was within the option of the enemy's 
commander then blockading the port, as it was 
surely his interest, to attack our squadron at dis- 
advantage while engaged in crossing the bar, par- 
tially divested of its armament, and in the per- 
plexity and embarrassment of laborious efforts un- 
favourable to defence, Captain Perry surely expect- 
ed to be engaged by the enemy while in the act 
of removing his vessels to the open lake. That 
he did so is evident from the conclusion of a let- 
ter to the secretary of the navy, dated on the 
twenty-seventh of July, in which he says, " We 
are ready to sail the instant officers and men ar- 
rive ; and, as the enemy appear determined to 
dispute the passage of the bar with us, the ques- 
tion as to the command of the lake will soon be 
decided." 

The measures adopted by Captain Perry in meet- 
ing this trying and dangerous emergency were of 
the most judicious character, and equally credita- 
ble to his distinguished skill as a seaman, and 
to his military genius and hardihood. Two large 
camels, or scows, of sufficient capacity to displace 
a given quantity of water, and lift the brigs four 
feet after the removal of their armament, had been 
previously constructed by Mr. Brown, to lit exactly 
the shape of the brigs, and, enclosing them at the 
bow and stern, to meet towards the centre. A 
P2 



174 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

water-battery of three long twelves had also been 
mounted on the beach, opposite the shoalest part 
of the bar, to assist in the protection of the ves- 
sels while in the act of crossing. 

Meantime, the enemy continued in the offing, 
displaying his colours, with a commodore's broad 
pendant at the main of the Queen Charlotte; 
from which it appears that our opponents, though 
so far from the scene of action, were not guilty 
of the absurdity of making their commander on 
Lake Erie wholly subordinate to the command- 
er on Lake Ontario. On the second of August 
Commodore Barclay suddenly withdrew his ves- 
sels, and stood out of sight in the direction of the 
Canada shore. They were still absent on the 
morning of Sunday, the first of August, when 
the commodore weighed with eight of his squad- 
ron, and beat down to near the bar in readiness 
for crossing. About to undertake with such slen- 
der means an object of so much national import- 
ance. Perry, who had ever a deep sense of our de- 
pendance on a controlling and overruling Provi- 
dence, now invoked protection and aid from the 
God of battles. A clergyman, whose ministration 
he had attended on shore, came off by invitation 
to the Lawrence ; and, the officers of the squadron 
being assembled, the banner of the cross was rais- 
ed high above the ensign, and the sacred offices 
commenced. The man of God plead devoutly for 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 175 

the triumph of our just cause ; for our success in 
wresting the tomahawk and scalping-knife from 
savage hands, and subduing the ruthless foe who 
had encouraged and armed them for the slaugh- 
ter. He then, in an appropriate address, set forth 
all the motives of humanity, of patriotism, of what 
depended on them for the rescuing of outraged al- 
tars and the diffusion of Christianity, and bade 
them go forth conquering and to conquer. The 
feelings of all were affected and elevated by the 
solemn rites, and the contemplative mind of Perry 
seemed confirmed in its calm and steadfast enthu- 
siasm. 

In the afternoon Major-general Mead, of the 
militia, who had lent all the aid in his power in 
the defence and equipment of the squadron, visit- 
ed the Lawrence with his suite, and was received 
with a salute of fifteen guns. Throughout the day 
a great concourse of people from the neighbouring 
country, scarcely any of whom had ever before 
seen a square-rigged vessel, lined the shore of the 
lake, filled with astonishment at the strangeness 
of the spectacle. 

Early in the morning of Monday the second, 
Perry ordered five of the small vessels to cross the 
bar, anchor without it, and clear for action; the 
sixth, with the Niagara, to anchor one on each side 
of the channel close within the bar, and spring 
their broadsides lakeward, in readiness to open on 



<76 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

the enemy, should they appear, and cover the pas- 
sage of the Lawrence. The vessels had been tow- 
ed to the bar, when, to the great annoyance of 
Captain Perry, he found that the lake was consid- 
erably below its usual level ; that there was only 
four feet water on the bar instead of six, and that 
it would be necessary to lighten even the small 
vessels to get them over. Still, the smoothness 
of the lake and the absence of the enemy in- 
duced him to proceed. While the small vessels 
were getting over, the guns of the Lawrence, 
with the exception of one or two to assist in her 
defence, were hoisted out, with their charges 
in them, and placed in boats, which were drop- 
ped astern. The camels were then got along- 
side, and the w^ater allowed to run into them until 
their tops were nearly level with the surface. The 
camels were then lashed together, and solid blocks 
arranged on top of them, so as to reach the ends 
of stout spars which had been laid across the 
Lawrence through her ports, and securely lashed 
down to the frame of the vessel. This being ar- 
ranged, the pumps w^ere set at work in the scows, 
which raised gradually, lifting the brig with them 
as the water was discharged. In this way the 
Lawrence was lifted three feet, which, with what 
she had raised on the removal of her armament, 
reduced her draught to about four feet. When she 
got on the shoalest part of the bar, however, it 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY, 177 

was found that the water had still shoalened, and 
that it was impossible to force her over, notwith- 
standing every exertion that could be made by 
heaving on the cables and anchors which had 
been carried out. The Lawrence had settled a 
little from the slacking of the lashings and giving 
way of one of the spars which passed from camel 
to camel. If became, therefore, indispensable to 
sink the camels again, get additional blocks be- 
tween them and the cross-pieces, and replace the 
broken one. This expedient was resorted to to- 
wards nightfall; a few inches diminution of the 
Lawrence's draught was thus gained, and she was 
slowly and by main strength hove across the bar 
in the course of that night and the following day. 
In this laborious service efficient aid was received 
from the mihtia of the neighbourhood, under the 
orders of General David Mead. 

Daylight of the fourth of August found the Law- 
rence's crew, with most of those of the other ves- 
sels, still hard at work. She got fairly afloat at 
eight o'clock, and her guns were quickly mount- 
ed, and everything prepared for action. The Ni- 
agara was got over more easily on the following 
day ; but was still on the bar when the enemy 
appeared in the offing, standing in with a leading 
breeze. Encouraged by their young commander, 
and excited by his appeals to their pride and pa- 
triotism, the exhausted seamen rallied to the call, 



i78 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

and, by unparalleled exertions, the Niagara was 
in deep water at eleven o'clock. To gain time 
while engaged in the task of mounting her bat- 
tery, Perry now gave orders to Lieutenant Pack- 
ett, of the Ariel, and sailing-master Champlain, of 
the Scorpion, both their vessels being fast-sailing 
schooners, to weigh anchor and stand out towards 
the enemy, and annoy him with their heavy guns 
at long shot. These officers obeyed instantly, and 
dashed directly at the enemy, and opened a fire 
on him in the most gallant manner. Meantime 
the Lawrence remained at anchor, and the people 
being at quarters, commenced exercising the 
guns, when it became apparent that they were not 
yet to be called on to use them in earnest. It 
does not appear to have been Commodore Bar- 
clay's intention to take advantage of the critical 
situation of our squadron in crossing the bar to 
bring on an engagement, as Captain Perry had 
expected. If it had been, he would hardly have 
been turned from his purpose by this slight, though 
well-timed and well-executed demonstration, nor 
yet by the judicious and admirable disposition 
which Captain Perry had made to cover the in- 
evitable weakness of his position while crossing 
the bar. His motive for neglecting this favour- 
able opportunity for attack was doubtless the cer- 
tainty which he felt that in a fortnight he should 
have the co-operation of his heavy ship the De- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 179 

troit, which would give him, in every respect, a 
decided superiority. Whatever may have been 
his motives, and they were no doubt worthy of a 
brave man, after a short cannonade with the two 
schooners, he bore up w'ith his squadron, and stood 
across the lake in the durection of Long Point.* 

In the midst of these anxious operations. Cap- 
tain Perry had received another urgent letter from 
General Harrison, inviting the early co-operation 
of his squadron. He instantly replied to it in the 
following w^ords : " I have had the honour to re- 
ceive your letter of the twenty-eighth of July this 
morning, and hasten, in reply, to inform you that I 
have succeeded in getting one of the sloops-of-war 
over the bar. The other will probably be over to- 
day or to-morrow\ The enemy is now standing for 
us with five sail. We have seven over the bar ; 

* Perry was subsequently consulied by the navy department 
as to the practicabib'ty of deepening the bar of Erie, and gave 
his opinion in favour of it. The project has since been success- 
fully effected by sinking piers on each side of the channel so 
as to narrow it ; and the action of the wind in driving in the 
water has, with the aid of a dredging machine, so far removed 
the sand-bar as to deepen the channel to nine feet. The gov- 
ernment has, moreover, recently shown an enlightened sense of 
the value of this port, for commercial as well as for warlike pur- 
poses, by cutting through the tongue of the peninsula at the 
western extremity of the bay, so as to make a passage in that 
direction for vessels bound up the lake, which might otherwise 
remain wind-bound when the wind was fair to make their pas- 
sage if without the harbour. 



180 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

all small, however, except the Lawrence. I am ot 
opinion that in two days the naval superiority will 
be decided on this lake. Should we be successful, 
I shall sail for the head of the lake immediately to 
co-operate with you, and hope that our joint efforts 
will be productive of honour and advantage to our 
country. The squadron is not much more than half 
manned ; but, as I see no prospect of receiving re- 
enforcements, I have determined to commence my 
operations. I have requested Captain Richard- 
son* to despatch an express to you the moment 
the issue of our contest with the enemy is known. 
My anxiety to join you is very great, and, had 
seamen been sent to me in time, I should now, in 
all probabiHty, have been at the head of the lake, 
acting in conjunction with you." In a postscript 
he adds, " Thank God, the other sloop-of-war is 
over. I shall be after the enemy, who is now 
making off, in a few hours. I shall be with you 
shortly." 

During the remainder of the fifth of August and 
the whole of the following night, the crews of the 
different vessels were busily engaged in getting on 
board and distributing a few necessary stores, re- 
ceiving volunteers from the mihtia, and preparing 

* Deputy-commissary of ordnance of the northwestern army. 
He had been sent to Erie to receive some ordnance stores to be 
embarked in the squadron for the use of the army. While get- 
ting the vessels over the bar he commanded the battery on the 
beach. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. l8l 

the vessels for sailing and for battle. At three 
o'clock in the morning of the sixth, the signal was 
made for the squadron to weigh anchor, and at 
four the vessels were all under sail, standing for 
Long Point, the direction in which the enemy had 
been last seen. The earnest desire of Perry to 
meet the enemy may be judged from his indefati- 
gable and unceasing efforts to get his vessels over 
the bar, to prepare them for battle, and go in pur- 
suit of the enemy. His ardour was warmly shared 
by his officers and men. From daylight on the 
second to the fourth of August, Perry, though in 
weak health, had not closed his eyes, and not an 
officer or man in that squadron had enjoyed a mo- 
ment's rest, except such as could be snatched upon 
deck. During the search for the enemy the ves- 
sels were cleared for action, and there could have 
been little opportunity for repose. After an inef- 
fectual pursuit of twenty-four hours, the enemy 
having, as it afterward proved, proceeded to Mai- 
den, at the head of the lake, tho. squadron returned 
to its anchorage off Erie, having barely been able 
to fetch that place. Had the wind favoured, the 
commodore intended to have followed the enemy 
to the head of the lake.* 

* The following is the list of the vessels and their command- 
ers on this cruise : Lawrence, Captain Perry ; Niagara, Lieu- 
tenant D. Turner ; brig Caledonia, commanded by Purser H. 
Magrath ; pilot-boat schooner Ariel, Lieutenant L Packett ; 

Q 



182 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

The seventh and eighth of August were em- 
ployed in fining up with provisions, and receiv- 
ing the mihtary stores for the army of General 
Harrison. It was the intention of Captain Perry 
to have put to sea on the evening of the eighth, on 
his way up the lake ; but in the course of the day 
he received an express from Lieutenant Elliott, 
dated at Cattaraugus, sixty miles lower down the 
lake, informing Captain Perry that he had reached 
that place on his way to join the squadron and 
take the command of the Niagara, together with 
two acting Heutenants, eight midshipmen, a mas- 
ter-mate, a clerk, and eighty-nine men, making a 
re-enforcement of one hundred and two souls in 
all.* 

schooners Scorpion, Sailing-master S. Champlain ; Somers, 
Sailing-master Almy ; Tigress, Master's Mate A. Macdonald; 
Porcupine, Midshipman George Senat. The Amelia, Ohio, and 
Trippe were left behind for want of crews. 

* Mr. Cooper says, p. 359, there were eleven officers and one 
hundred men. There were only eighty-nine men. -On the pre- 
vious page he says, that Commodore Chauncey, soon after the 
third of July, felt himself strong enough to send one hundred 
and thirty men, with the necessary officers, to the upper lakes. 
There were eight officers and only one hundred and twenty-two 
men. Thus, in both instances, the number of men sent by 
Commodore Chauncey to Captain Perry is overstated by Mr. 
Cooper. Mr. Cooper misdates the appearance of the English 
squadron o& the bar and the sailing of ours. These events took 
place on the fifth and sixth of August respectively, instead of 
the fourth and fifth, as stated by him. He subsequently states 
that the American squadron sailed from Erie for Sandusky on 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 183 

This pleasing announcement is thus noticed in 
Mr. Hambleton's journal, and is interesting as giv- 
ing a lively picture of the position and feelings of 
Perry. " Went on shore and transacted a variety 
of business; paid off the volunteers, so that we 
have none but the four months' men who signed 
articles. Captain Perry has just received a letter 
from General Harrison, informing him of the rais- 
ing of the siege of Camp Meigs, and of the unsuc- 
cessful attack on the fort at Sandusky, command- 
ed by Lieutenant Craughan. The prisoners taken 
there state that the new^ ship Detroit was launched 
at Maiden on the seventeenth of last month. Cap- 
tain Perry and I dined on shore. After dinner, 
being alone, we had a long conversation on the 
state of our affairs. He confessed that he was 
now much at a loss what to do. While he feels 
the danger of delay, he is not insensible to the 
hazard of encountering an enemy without due 
preparation. His officers are few and inexperi- 
enced, and we are short of seamen. His repeated 
and urgent requests for men having been treated 
with the most mortifying neglect, he declines ma- 

uhe eighteenth of August, when it sailed on the twelfth. He 
states previously that " it was near the end of June" before 
Perry sailed from Buffalo for Erie with the five small vessels, 
whereas he sailed from Buflfalo on the fourteenth, and arrived at 
Erie on the eighteenth of June. These errors are corrected, as 
dates are considered material in history. 



184 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

king another. While thus engaged, a midshipman, 
Mr. J. B. Montgomery, entered and handed him a 
letter. It was from Lieutenant Elhott, on his way 
to join him with several officers and eighty-nine 
seamen. He was electrified by this news, and, as 
soon as we were alone, declared he had not been 
so happy since his arrival." 

The commodore immediately repaired on board 
the Lawrence, and despatched the Ariel to run the 
coast down tow^ards Cattaraugus, and bring up 
Lieutenant Elliott and his party. They arrived 
on the tenth of August, and the men proved 
to be of a very superior character to those which 
had been hitherto sent; their arrival and their 
superior character being both in no small degree 
attributable to the more urgent request of Cap- 
tain Perry, and his complaints as to the character 
of those that were sent, which, though producing 
irritation in the mind of Commodore Chauncey, had 
also been attended with this salutary result. 

The men brought up by Lieutenant Elliott are 
represented, indeed, as having been " prime men," 
the first draught of that character which had yet 
been received on Lake Erie. This officer, who, 
soon after, received his commission as a master- 
commandant, derived the chief benefit from this 
valuable accession of seamen. The crew of the 
Lawrence being more nearly complete in num- 
bers, though she had a large number of sick, than 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 185 

that of the Niagara, the greater part of the new- 
draught was taken on board of the Niagara. Sail- 
ing-master Taylor, of the Lawrence, happened to 
be on board of that vessel when Lieutenant El- 
lictt took command of her, and remarked that, 
as the men arrived alongside of her. Lieutenant El- 
liott called from the boats the men previously 
designated for the different stations of importance 
on board of his vessel. He thus assumed to him- 
self a right of selection among the men, whose rel- 
ative merits were well known to him, and the 
residue, after being thus gleaned by him, was dis- 
tributed among the other vessels. This induced 
Mr. Taylor, who, being a thorough seaman him- 
self, was well calculated to appreciate the value 
of seamanship in others, and who was personally 
interested in seeing a fair share of good men on 
board the vessel to which he belonged, to remark 
to his commander, that the different vessels of the 
squadron were very unequally manned, in conse- 
quence of so great a proportion of the effective 
men being engrossed by the Niagara. With the 
same magnanimity which he had used on a former 
occasion towards Captain Morris — a magnanimity 
most unusual in the service, and w^hich strongly 
contrasted with the course which Commodore 
Chauncey had pursued towards him — Captain Per- 
ry took no notice of the discourtesy shown to him, 
as the commanding officer, in this unauthorized 
Q2 



186 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

selection, and no steps to equalize the effective 
force of the vessel under his command, which was 
to bear the brunt and burden of the day in his 
country's battle, with that of his junior officer. 

This acceptable re-enforcement of effective mfen, 
due, in no inconsiderable degree, to the urgent re- 
monstrances of Captain Perry, was accompanied 
by a letter, which betrayed great irritation on the 
part of the commodore, and was well suited to 
irritate and wound the person to whom it was ad- 
dressed. It was dated on board the Pike, off Bur- 
lington Bay, on the thirteenth of July ; and, in- 
stead of being directed, as was the custom of the 
commodore, " to Captain Perry, senior naval offi- 
cer at Lake Erie," it was simply, " commanding 
the U. S. brig Lawrence." It ran as follows: 

"Sir, 
" I have been duly honoured with your letters 
of the twenty-third and twenty-sixth ultimo, and 
notice your anxiety for men and officers. I am 
equally anxious to furnish you, and no time shall 
be lost in sending officers and men to you, as soon 
as the public service w^ill allow me to send them 
from this lake. I regret that you are not pleased 
with the men sent you by Messrs. Champlin and 
Forrest ; for, to my knowledge, a part of them are 
not surpassed by any seamen we have in the fleet ; 
and I have yet to learn that the colour of the 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 187 

skin, or the cut and trimmings of the coat, can 
affect a man's qualifications or usefulness. I have 
nearly fifty blacks on board of this ship, and many 
of them are among my best men ; and those people 
you call soldiers have been to sea from two to 
seventeen years, and I presume that you will find 
them as good and useful as any men on board of 
your vessel, at least if I can judge by comparison, 
for those which we have on board of this ship are 
attentive and obedient, and, as far as I can judge, 
many of them excellent seamen ; at any rate, the 
men sent to Lake Erie have been selected with a 
view of sending a fair proportion of petty officers 
and seamen, and I presume, upon examination, it 
wull be found that they are equal to those upon 
this lake. 

" I have received several letters from the secre- 
tary of the navy, urging the necessity of the naval 
force upon Lake Erie acting immediately. You 
Avill therefore, as soon as you receive a sufficient 
number of men, commence your operations against 
the enemy, and, as soon as possible, co-operate 
with the array under General Harrison. As you 
have assured the secretary that you should con- 
ceive yourself equal or superior to the enemy with 
a force in men so much less than I had deemed 
necessary, there will be a great deal expected 
from you by your country, and I trust they will 
not be disappointed in the high expectations form- 



188 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

ed of your gallantry and judgment. I will barely 
make an observation, which was impressed upon 
my mind by an old soldier, that is, ' Never despise 
your enemy.' I was mortified to see, by your let- 
ters to the secretary, extracts and copies of which 
have been forwarded to me, that you complain 
that the distance was so great between Sackett's 
Harbour and Erie that you could not get instruc- 
tions from me in time to execute with any ad- 
vantage to the service, thereby intimating the ne- 
cessity of a separate command. Would it not 
have been as well to have made the complaint to 
me instead of the secretary ? 

" My confidence in your zeal and abilities is un- 
diminished, and I sincerely hope that your success 
may equal your utmost wishes. I shall despatch 
to you some ofl^icers and seamen and farther in- 
structions on my return to Niagara, where I hope 
to be the day after to-morrow." 

It will be seen that the commodore does not dis- 
tinctly assert that the men sent to Lake Erie were 
equal to those whom he had retained. He only 
presumes that, upon examination, they will be 
found to be equal. A part of them, he says, to 
his knowledge, were not surpassed by any seamen 
in his fleet. The commodore could not have haz- 
arded an unqualified assertion. All the officers on 
Lake Erie unite in pronouncing the men sent to 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRT. 18^ 

that lake by Commodore Chauncey as having 
been the most wretched selection that could have 
been made; while it is equally notorious in the 
service, notwithstanding what Mr. Cooper says in 
exculpation of Commodore Chauncey, as to the 
generally inferior character of the seamen on all 
the lakes, that there were on Lake Ontario a large 
proportion of as good seamen as ever trod a ship's 
deck; the genuine long queues abounded there. 
Commodore Chauncey, a thorough seaman him- 
self, had a passion for the collection about him of 
all the most finished specimens of the true man-of- 
war's-men that could be found ; and, unfortunate- 
ly, the gratification of this taste was brought into 
collision with the obligations of duty, as well as 
the sense of magnanimity which rendered it in- 
cumbent upon him to send to a junior officer a full 
and fair share of seamen for the execution of. an 
important trust, and to send them in season. The 
consciousness that he had not done this, led him to 
receive with greater irritation Captain Perry's let- 
ter of complaint, and prompted the irony and sar- 
casm of his reply. 

The following extract from Mr. Hambleton's 
journal is amply confirmatory of what we have 
said with regard to the detention on I^ake Ontario. 
Several officers who served on Lake Ontario con- 
firm the account of the extraordinary number of 
men, exactly double what were necessary, whom 



190 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

the commodore had continued to crowd together 
on board the Pike. " Several weeks ago, the sec- 
retary of the navy informed Captain Perry that a 
sufficient number for both lakes had been forward- 
ed. This is true 3 but, unfortunately, they were 
all sent to Lake Ontario, where our portion was 
detained without necessity. For instance, the 
Pike, with a single deck and twenty-six guns, 
had four hundred men, most of them prime sea- 
men, mustering in all four hundred and seventy ; 
and even now he has not sent a single officer of 
rank or experience except Captain Elliott."* 

With the feeling of an old officer addressiil^ his 
inferior in rank and age, the commodore may have 
thought that the commendatory phrase which 
closed his letter would have quahfied the bitter- 
ness of his rebuke ; but the patience and amiabil- 
it)» of Perry was coupled with extreme sensitive- 
ness to whatever aifected his honour. On the very 
day that he received the commodore's letter, he 
enclosed a copy of it to the secretary of the navy, 
earnestly requesting that he might be removed 
from his present station. Mr. Cooper has incor- 
rectly placed Captain Perry's application for remo- 

* Yet we find Mr, Cooper, whose sympathy perpetually over- 
flows for the commodore, lamenting that " this draught greatly 
deranged the crew of the Pike, her men requiring to be station- 
ed anew after it had been made." The only difficulty in sta- 
tioning them would be to keep tiiem out of each other's way. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 191 

val from his command on the ground of his " com- 
plainmg of the quahty of the crews of the ves- 
sels which he commanded." If this statement 
were^to remain uncorrected, it would leave an 
impression upon the public mind suited to dimin- 
ish the w^ell-earned fame of Perry ; an impression, 
indeed, which it is the general tendency of all 
that Mr. Cooper has written with regard to him 
to produce. But for this circumstance, the dif- 
ficulty which took place between Commodore 
Chauncey and Captain Perry would not have 
been here adverted to, as it did not prevent them 
fronWubsequently resuming their friendship. Cap- 
tain Perry's letter will show the real grounds of 
his request to be removed from under Commodore 
Chauncey's command, and the unfounded charac- 
ter of Mr. Cooper's allegation. It is dated on 
board the Lawrence, at Erie, on the tenth of 
August. 

"Sir, 
" I am under the disagreeable necessity of re- 
questing a removal from this station. The en- 
closed copy of a letter from Commodore Chaun- 
cey will, I am satisfied, convince you that I can- 
not serv^e longer under an officer who has been so 
totally regardless of my feelings. The men spoken 
of by Commodore Chauncey are those mentioned 
in the roll I did myself the honour to send you. 



192 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

They may, sir, be as good as are on the other 
lake; but, if so, that squadron must be poorly 
manned indeed. In the requisition for men sent 
by your order, I made a note, saying I shoul(Pcon- 
sider myself equal or superior to the enemy with 
a smaller number of men. What then might have 
been considered certain, may, from lapse of time, 
be deemed problematical.* 

" The commodore insinuates that I have taken 
measures to obtain a separate command. I beg 
leave to ask you, sir, if anything in any of my 
letters to you could be construed into such a mean- 
ing. On my return to thi& place in June last, I 
wrote you that the Queen Charlotte and Lady Pre- 
vost were off this harbour, and if they remained a 
few days I might possibly be able to intercept 
their return to Maiden. I had no orders to act ; 
and the only way of obtaining them in time was 
to write to you, sir, as the communication be- 
tween Commodore Chauncey and myself occupied 
considerably upward of a month. In my request, 
I meant this as a reason for applying to you on 
the emergency instead of to the commodore. 

" I have been on this station upward of five 

* He had since heard of the arrival of Commodore Barclay 
with a re-enforcement of officers and men, and of the launch- 
ing of the heavy ship Detroit, which, when fitted for service, 
would give the enemy a decided superiority. His great anxiety 
had been to get out before the equipment of that ship. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 193 

months, and during that time have submitted 
cheerfully and with pleasure to fatigue and anx- 
iety hitherto unknown to me in the service. I 
have had a very responsible situation, without an 
officer, except one sailing-master, of the least ex- 
perience. However seriously I have felt my situ- 
ation, not a murmur has escaped me. The critical 
state of General Harrison was such that I took upon 
myself the very great responsibility of going out 
with the few young officers you had been pleased 
to send me, with the few seamen I had, and as 
many volunteers as I could muster from the mili- 
tia. I did not shrink from this responsibility ; but, 
sir, at that very moment I surely did not antici- 
pate the receipt of a letter in every line of which 
is insult. Under all these circumstances, I beg 
most respectfully and most earnestly that I may 
be immediately removed from this station. I am 
wining to forego that reward which I have con- 
sidered for two months past almost within my 
grasp. If, sir, I have rendered my country any 
service in the equipment of this squadron, I beg it 
may be considered an inducement to grant my re- 
quest. I shall proceed with the squadron, and 
whatever is in my power shall be done to promote 
the interest and honour of the service." 

The reader may thus see for himself that Cap- 
tain Perry's application for removal from his cora- 
R 



194 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

mand was made upon the specific ground that he 
was unwilling to serve under an officer who had 
been totally regardless of his feelings, by address- 
ing to him a letter which he conceived to be in- 
sulting in every line, and not in any measure or 
degree on account of " the quality of the crews of 
the vessels he commanded," as is incorrectly al- 
leged by Mr. Cooper. In going out with only three 
hundred officers and men, and a few militia volun- 
teers hastily collected, on his own responsibility and 
without orders to act, he manifested his willing- 
ness to meet the enemy, whatever might be " the 
quality of the crews of the vessels he command- 
ed," as he subsequently did his ability to triumph 
signally with the same materials. 

Lieutenant ElHott was at the same time the 
bearer of a second letter from Commodore Chaun- 
cey, dated off Niagara on the third of August, in 
which he expressed the hope that the one hundred 
officers and men accompanying Lieutenant Elliott, 
together with such assistance as Captain Perry 
might be able to get from the army, would place 
him so nearly upon a footing with the enemy as 
to enable him to go out and offer battle, and open, 
if possible, an immediate intercourse with General 
Harrison. Commodore Chauncey also expressed 
his disappointment at not being able to send Cap- 
tain Perry any marines, as he had expected to 
have done. He stated that, as Captain Wain- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 195 

wright, who had been announced as about to ar- 
rive with a detachment, had not reached Sackett's 
Harbour before the commodore sailed, he was un- 
able to send them at that time without distressing 
his own ship ; but, as soon as he should return to 
Sackett's Harbour, he promised to send fifty ma- 
rines to Captain Perry. Ten days after making 
this promise, the commodore, while on his way to 
Sackett's Harbour, met with the schooner Lady 
of the Lake, which, by his order, was transporting 
the promised detachment of marines to Niagara, 
to be thence forwarded to Lake Erie. Commo- 
dore Chauncey now took these marines, which he 
had promised to Captain Perry, and which would 
have been so valuable to him, on board of his 
own vessels. The reason assigned by Mr. Cooper 
for this unjust appropriation was, that Commodore 
Chauncey had recently lost one hundred and fifty 
men by the foundering of two of his vessels, and 
the capture of two others by the enemy in action, 
on the night of the tenth of August. Yet, three 
or four days after Commodore Chauncey deemed 
it necessary to strengthen himself with this feeble 
re-enforcement to his large force, but which would 
have been of so much importance to the smaller 
force of Captain Perry, we find the commodore, 
in the absence of two of his cruisers, the Fair 
American and Asp, offering battle to the whole 
British squadron off the False Ducks. If the com- 



196 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

modore considered himself a match for the British 
squadron without two of his cruisers, with still 
more confidence might he have gone into action 
with those two vessels, and without the fifty ma- 
rines withheld from Lake Erie, where their pres- 
ence was so essential. As for the substitution of 
either militiamen or newly-levied regular troops 
for marines, it is needless to say how ill the former 
could supply the place of the latter. Marines, 
from the long-continued habit of serving on ship- 
board, are as much at home there as seamen, and 
are of essential use in the discharge of every or- 
dinary duty. In battle, whether stationed at the 
great guns, to the exercise of which they are 
trained in all well-disciplined ships, as, indeed, 
they should be while in barracks, or using their 
own appropriate arms, they have ever shown the 
most devoted courage. These circumstances add 
to the injustice which Coinmodore Chauncey did 
to Captain Perry in withholding from him his due 
quota of marines, under a pretext which is wholly 
insufficient. It would be unfair to Commodore 
Chauncey not to state, that the injustice done by 
him to Captain Perry, in withholding a sufficient 
number of good men, has been practised not un- 
frequently by our old commanders, though, per- 
haps, in less critical circumstances. Deprived of 
the distinction of higher grades as a just reward 
of faithful services, and accustomed yearly to see 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 197 

their juniors take rank beside them, they chng 
with pertinacity to every admitted attribute of 
their superior station, and use their authority in a 
narrow spirit, and with reference chiefly to them- 
selves. The subjects of injustice themselves, they 
are not a little prone to exercise injustice towards 
others. The creation of a higher grade, while it 
would incalculably promote the discipline and best 
interests of the service, would impart a magnanim- 
ity to our old commanders in their relations with 
their inferiors, which they are at present but little 
in the habit of practising. 

It may be as well here to state, that the difficul- 
ty growing out of Commodore Chauncey's harsh 
letter of the thirtieth of July was closed, so far as 
these two officers were concerned, by the follow- 
ing reply of Commodore Chauncey to Captain Per- 
ry's letter, announcing his having requested to be 
withdrawn from Lake Erie. It is inserted in jus- 
tice to Commodore Chauncey, as being alike cred- 
itable to his good sense and good feehng. The 
letter is dated at Sackett's Harbour on the tvjen- 
ty-seventh of August. 

" I have received your letter of the eleventh in- 
stant, wherein you inform me that you had en- 
closed a copy of my letter of the thhtieth of July 
to the honourable the secretary of the navy, with 
R2 



198 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

a request that you might be immediately removed 
from Lake Erie. I regret your determination for 
various reasons; the first and most important is, 
that the public service would suffer from a change, 
and your removal might in some degree defeat 
the objects of the campaign. Although I con- 
ceive that you have treated me with less candour 
than I was entitled to, considering the warm in- 
terest that I have always taken in your behalf, yet 
my confidence in your zeal and ability has been 
undiminished, and I should really regret that any 
circumstance should remove you from your present 
command before you have accomplished the ob- 
jects for which you were sent to Erie ; and I trust 
that you will give the subject all the consideration 
that its importance requires before you make up 
your mind definitively. You ought also to consider 
that the first duty of an oflficer is to sacrifice all 
personal feelings to his public duties." 

The volunteers from the militia which Captain 
Perry had taken on board to go in pursuit of the 
enemy had only been for that single cruise. He 
was unable to procure any permanent volunteers 
to perform the duty of marines during the cruising 
season. With his small force, a few short of four 
hundred oflfiicers and men, he sailed on the twelfth 
of August from Erie, to proceed up the lake and 
place himself in co-operation with the northwestern 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 199 

army, the headquarters of which were then at Sen- 
eca, on the banks of the Sandusky. The order of 
saiUng estabhshed by Perry for his squadron was in 
a double column ; the Lawrence, Porcupine, Cale- 
donia, Ohio, and Ariel being on the right, and the 
Niagara, Trippe, Tigress, Somers, and Scorpion 
on the left, in the order respectively in which they 
are named. It will be seen that he had now add- 
ed the Ohio and Trippe to his squadron, under the 
command respectively of Sailing-master D. Dob- 
bin and Lieutenant J. E. Smith. There was also 
an established line of battle in one line, with the* 
Ariel and Scorpion, the two fastest of the small 
vessels, stationed on the opposite side from the en- 
emy, and near the commodore, in a situation to 
support any part of the line that might require it. 
In a subsequent order, the Scorpion was brought 
into the line, and the distance between the vessels 
was fixed at a half cable's length. Finally, there 
was an order of attack, in which a particular an- 
tagonist in the British squadron was assigned to 
each vessel of ours, which was intended to facili- 
tate the business of remodelling the line of battle, 
if necessary, according to the arrangement of the 
enemy's squadron when it should be fallen in with, 
and to fix in the mind of each commander his spe- 
cial adversary. In this order of attack Perry had 
reserved to himself the privilege of fighting the 
largest of the enemy's ships, and had accordingly 



200 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

placed the Lawrence opposite the Detroit in the di- 
agram, and the Niagara, in Hke manner, opposite 
the second British ship, the Queen Charlotte. Pro- 
vision was made, in case of a separation of our ves- 
sels and an accidental rencounter in the night, to 
prevent a collision under the impression of their be- 
ing enemies, that our vessels should hoist one light 
and hail, the vessel to windward should answer first 
"Jones," to which the leewardmost would answer 
" Madison." The additional order was subse- 
quently issued, that, in the event of the enemy's 
approaching our squadron to attack it \OTle at 
anchor, the signal of two consecutive musket-shots 
from the Lawrence would be a signal for the ves- 
sels to cut their cables and make sail, beginning 
with the leewardmost, and form astern of the Law- 
rence, which would show a light ; three consecu- 
tive musket-shots would be the signal to weigh in 
the same succession. The orders were all well 
conceived to promote concerted action and pre- 
vent surprise, and indicated judgment and fore- 
thought. 

On the sixteenth the squadron arrived off Cun- 
ningham's Island, near the head of the lake, with- 
out having seen the enemy. It was blowing fresh 
at the time, which prevented it from taking a berth 
close in with Sandusky Bar, as Perry had intended, 
in order to disembark the military stores for the 
army, and communicate with General Harrison. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 201 

On the following day, one of the enemy's small 
cruisers having hove in sight, probably to recon- 
noitre, the squadron gave chase and was nearly 
up with her, when, night coming on, she disap^ 
peared among the group of the Sisters. 

The squadron now anchored off Sandusk}^, and 
General Harrison came on board the Lawrence on 
the nineteenth of August, in the evening, accom- 
panied by Generals Cass and M* Arthur, Colonel 
Gaines, Major Croghan, with the whole of his nu- 
merous staff, and twenty-six chiefs of the Shawnee, 
Wyandot, and Delaware Indians; among whom 
were three highly influential ones, Crane, Black 
Hoof, and Captain Tommy by name. The object 
of the general in bringing the Indians was, that 
they might inform their friends then with the en- 
emy of our force, with the hope of detaching them. 
They .were, of course, filled with wonder at the 
spectacle of our " big canoes." On the morning of 
the twentieth, a salute was fired in honour of the 
general's visit. Perry learned from him that he 
was not ready to advance, and determined, in the 
interim, to go in pursuit of the enemy's squadron 
and offer it battle. The general and commodore 
spent the day in reconnoitring Put-in Bay, to the 
advantages of which the general had first called 
his attention. After concerting their plans for the 
removal of the army to this point, when it should 
be all assembled previously to invading Canada, 



202 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

the general returned on the twenty-first to his 
camp. Perry proceeded on the twenty-third to 
Put-in Bay, and on the twenty-fifth stood for Mai- 
den, and discovered the British squadron at anchor 
within Bar Point. It had not yet been re-en- 
forced by the new ship Detroit, which they could 
not discern. The wind blew fresh at the time ; 
and, as the Bay of Maiden can only be approached 
and left again with a leading breeze, when the 
wind is from southwest or northeast. Captain Per- 
ry thought it unsafe to run the risk of getting em- 
bayed, in which event he Avould be much exposed 
to lose some of his dullest sailers. On this ac- 
count, and in consequence of being attacked with 
bilious remittent fever, a disease which was very 
prevalent in the squadron, and which was attend- 
ed with almost immediate prostration of strength, 
he took his squadron into Put-in Bay. This is a 
snug harbour, formed by the group of Bass Islands. 
It opens towards the Canada shore in the direction 
of Maiden, overlooks the passage into the upper 
and lower lakes, and offers an admirable point for 
protecting the adjacent coasts of Ohio, and the out- 
lets of the numberless streams which here disem- 
bogue into Lake Erie. Soon after Perry's attack, 
his disease, owing doubtless to the strength of his 
constitution, assumed a very malignant character. 
The surgeon of the Lawrence was seriously ill, as 
•A^ere the chaplain, Mr. T. Breese, and Alexander 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 203 

VeTTy, the commodore's brother. The assistant 
surgeon. Dr. U. Parsons, himself out of health, was 
obhged to prescribe for the commodore, and all the 
sick of the Lawrence and of the small vessels. He 
resorted at once, in the commodore's case, to strong 
remedial measures, and applied a blister to the 
back of his neck. On the twenty-eighth of Au- 
gust Dr. Parsons himself became affected with the 
prevailing fever. Though so ill as to be incapa- 
ble of walking, with a humane self-devotion most 
honourable to him, he continued to attend at the 
bedsides of the sick, to which he was carried, and 
to prescribe for them, not only on board of the 
Lawrence, but on board the small vessels, being 
lifted for the purpose on board of them in his cot, 
and the sick brought on deck for his prescription. 
On the thirty -first of August, while lying in 
Put-in Bay, Perry received from General Harrison 
a re-enforcement of near one hundred men, which, 
after deducting a few deaths, and others left on 
shore as useless at Erie, carried the total of his 
muster-roll to four hundred and ninety souls. 
Some of the men who had been selected from 
General M' Arthur's brigade were lake or river 
boatmen, and were received as seamen. The ma- 
jority, however, were intended to perform duty as 
marines in the squadron, in consequence of the dis- 
appointment in receiving the expected guard from 
Ontario. The men detailed for this service were 



204 AMERICAN BIOGKAPHY. 

chiefly taken from the Kentucky mihtia and from 
the twenty-eighth regiment of infantry, which had 
recently joined the army from Kentucky, where it 
had been entirely raised. The whole party, offi- 
cers and men included, were volunteers, led by a 
spirit of adventure to embark in an enterprise so 
different from the previous habits of their life. 
Few of them had ever seen a vessel before they 
were marched to the mouth of the Sandusky, and 
their astonishment and curiosity when they got on 
board were irrepressible. They climbed to the 
masthead ; dove to the bottom of the hold ; passed, 
without stopping or understanding any distinction, 
from the sick bay to the captain's cabin, express- 
ing their admiration as they went in awkward but 
rapturous terms. These Kentuckians were dressed 
in their favourite fringed linsey-woolsey hunting- 
shirts and drawers, and were themselves equally 
an object of curiosity to the officers and seamen, 
few of whom had ever seen any of these hardy 
borderers. Perry, for a time, was amused with the 
rest ; but began, ere long, to fear that his extraor- 
dinary marines would lend but little assistance in 
their appropriate office of sustaining the discipline 
and etiquette* of the squadron. Soon after their 
arrival, he briefly stated to the non-commissioned 
officer in command of that portion of the detach- 
ment which had been detailed for his own ves- 
sel, the nature of the duties that would be required 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 205 

of them, and the line of conduct they would be 
required to preserve. The officer then mustered 
his men on deck, and informed them that they 
had been kindly indulged by Commodore Perry 
with an opportunity of gratifying their curiosity 
by seeing the ship, in doing which they had 
been permitted to violate the rules and disci- 
pline of the sea-service without rebuke. They 
must now come to order, and submit themselves to 
the usual discipline of marines, confine themselves 
to their proper places, and attend to their appro- 
priate duties, which were forthwith explained to 
them. The stout Kentuckians took the admoni- 
tion in good part ; they carefully conformed to all 
that was required of them, were of essential use 
in manning the squadron, and replacing the ma- 
rines and seamen which Commodore Chauncey 
had withheld; and their association with Perry 
was, to such of them as survived to tell the tale 
of their adventures, a special and enduring source 
of gratification. 

His complement thus completed as to numbers, 
this valuable interval of repose was profitably em- 
ployed, by Perry's orders, in teaching his ill-as- 
sorted crews their duty, and training them in the 
various evolutions preparatory to battle. 

After a week's confinement to his berth, Perry 
became convalescent, and found himself sufficient- 
ly well on the first of September to be upon deck. 
S 



206 AMERICAN BIOGRAPKy. 

On that day he got his squadron once more in mo- 
tion and stood off Maiden. As the weather was 
settled and the wind favourable for standing in 
and out of the bay, Captain Perry ran very close 
in, and continued off the harbour the whole day 
with his colours set. He found their new ship, 
the Detroit, rigged and anchored with the rest of 
their squadron at the mouth of the harbour, under 
cover of a battery on the mainland, flanked by ^ 
second on an island opposite. His anticipations 
of the enemy's obtaining a superior force by the 
equipment of this ship, which he had studied to 
prevent by appearing on the lake and striking a 
blow while his force was yet superior to that of 
the enemy, being thus defeated by the delay of 
Commodore Chauncey in sending the crews for 
his vessels, it only remained for him to try the 
issue of a battle, of which the chances were now 
rendered so much against him. This purpose he 
was still no less firmly bent on effecting. It ap- 
pears, moreover, that he already meditated an at- 
tack on the enemy under the guns of his batteries, 
should he be unsuccessful in drawing him out, in 
concert with an attack from General Harrison by 
land. 

As the enemy showed no disposition at this time 
to accept the offer of battle thus made to him, on 
equal terms, in the open lake, Perry, after care- 
fully reconnoitring his position, bore up for San^ 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 207 

dusky on the second of September, in order to 
communicate with General Harrison with regard 
to embarking his army for an attack on Maiden. 
Captain Perry was of opinion that he could em- 
bark twenty-five hundred or three thousand men ; 
but they would so encumber his decks as to de- 
stroy the use of the great guns. He called the 
general's attention to a small island, known as the 
Middle Sister, distant about fifteen miles from 
Maiden, which he thought would offer an excel- 
lent rendezvous the day previous to an attack. 
This suggestion was subsequently adopted. 

A most deeply mortifying circumstance attend- 
ed Captain Perry's return to Sandusky. He found 
there two separate letters from the secretary of the 
navy, dated on the eighteenth of August. One 
of them was in reply to his application for re- 
moval from the command of Lake Erie. It was 
an exceedingly temperate and judicious letter, in 
which, while he was informed that the interests of 
the public service did not admit of a change of 
commanders under existing circumstances, his pa- 
triotism and sense of duty were powerfully appealed 
to as motives for inducing him to allay his feel- 
ings of discontent, to avoid recrimination, and 
persevere in the zealous and honourable path of 
duty which he had hitherto pursued with so much 
credit to himself and advantage to his country. 
The secretary concluded his letter with the follow- 



208 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

ing admirable sentimentj so well suited to influ- 
ence a generous temper : 

" It is the duty of an officer, and in none does 
his character shine more conspicuous, to sacrifice 
all personal motives and feelings when in collision 
with the public good. This sacrifice you are 
called upon to make ; and I calculate with confi- 
dence upon your efforts to restore and preserve 
harmony, and to concentrate the vigorous exer- 
tions of all in carrying into effect the great ob- 
jects of your enterprise." 

The soothing and complimentary effects of this 
letter were, however, accompanied by a very bitter 
antidote in another letter from the same function- 
ary of the same date, which, without once advert- 
ing to the subject of the difficulty with Commo- 
dore Chauncey, or the tendered resignation of the 
Lake Erie command, was filled throughout with 
reproof and animadversion, expressed occasionally 
in a tone sufficiently bitter and taunting. It com- 
menced thus abruptly : 

" A draught has been drawn upon me for four 
thousand two hundred and seventy-eight dollars 
for lead ballast. This appears to me extraordi- 
nary; for, admitting there was no pig-iron, yet, 
as you are on a fresh-water lake, and require no 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 209 

room for water, and but little for provisions and 
stores for a short cruise, stone, properly stowed 
and levelled, would have answered every purpose. 
I presume, if neither pig-iron nor lead could have 
been procured, that the object would not have 
been frustrated on that account. • I make great 
allowances for the remote situation and want of 
local resources, but the expenditures have beec 
o-reat indeed. 

" I observe Mr. Magrath, a purser, in comman(? 
of one of the vessels. You have several officers, 
highly spoken of by their late commanders, who 
are now commissioned lieutenants. Two of them, 
Messrs. Yarnall and Packett, have brought valu- 
able prizes across the Atlantic. You have com- 
plained very much, and it appears to me rather 
unreasonably, of the want of officers. Those you 
have have seen considerable service, from which 
they are regularly entitled to the situations they 
now hold, and Mr. Magrath cannot command to 
the prejudice of the lieutenants. You surely do 
not expect the frigates to be stripped of the senior 
lieutenants in order to furnish you with what you 
are pleased to consider experienced officers. 

" I regret to observe, by a letter from General 
Harrison, received yesterday at the department of 
war, that he appears to be under the impression 
that you are destitute of qualified officers, and that 
your crews are composed of anything but seamen. 
S2 



210 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

If he has received the impression from you, I deem 
it extremely improper 3 and I am mortified that the 
idea has considerable currency. If the fact was 
really so, its existence was not to be made a mat- 
ter of public notoriety, to imbolden the enemy and 
depress the confidence of the oflficers and men in 
their own powers. If you were yourself con- 
vinced of the fact, it was a proper ground of re- 
monstrance to this department, and would ever 
have been a justification on your part in declining 
to meet the enemy until a remedy should have 
been applied." 

There seems to be something disingenuous in 
the mode adopted by the secretary to get rid of 
the main diflficulty with regard to Captain Perry's 
objections to Commodore Chauncey's letter, by 
counselling conciliation and appealing to his pa- 
triotism, and yet, on the same day, returning upon 
him with sevenfold acrimony in connexion with 
the same diflriculties ; holding him, moreover, re- 
sponsible for the very deficiency of officers and 
men of which he had such just reason to complain, 
and for the tendency of this notorious deficiency 
to depress his own men and imbolden the enemy. 
Instructed to co-operate with General Harrison, 
and constantly urged by him to join company, 
how could he avoid stating to him the causes of 
his inability to comply? His sneer at the ex- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 211 

travagance of Captain Perry's pretensions, and at 
the absurdity of stripping the frigates of their se- 
nior lieutenants in order to furnish him with what 
he w^as pleased to consider experienced officers, 
was no less futile and ridiculous than it was in- 
sulting. On the day that Captain Perry received 
this harsh rebuke, he wrote a temperate and re- 
spectful reply, amply vindicating himself from the 
charges thus brought against him. It was in the 
following words : 

" I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt 
of your letter of the eighteenth ultimo, and am 
sorry to observe that my conduct in several par- 
ticulars is disapproved by the department. No 
doubt I have fallen into many errors, but I beg 
leave to assure you that I have used my best ex- 
ertions to forward the views of the department in 
the equipment of the vessels on this lake with the 
least possible expense and delay. If I have failed, 
I hope the failure will be attributed to anything 
but a want of zeal for the service and a proper at- 
tention to the important interests committed to my 
care. On ascertaining that pig-iron could not be 
had, and being informed that lead would at any 
time command cost at Erie, I did not hesitate to 
order it, the runs in the vessels being so low as 
not to admit a sufficient quantity of stone ballast. 
The expenditures on this station have no doubt 



212 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

amounted to a large sum ; but I am well convinced, 
when critically examined, it will be found to have 
been necessary. I have not authorized the pur- 
chase of a single article but what I deemed abso- 
lutely necessary, and I have paid the strictest at- 
tention to economy in every particular. 

" I was aware, at the time I appointed Mr. Ma- 
grath, that it was irregular, but I was fully con- 
vinced that it was the best arrangement that I 
could make. I knew him to be an experienced 
sea-officer, and that his appointment did not inter- 
fere with the wishes of the other officers.* Mr. 
Packett, then acting lieutenant, by his own appli- 
cation had command of the Ariel, and Mr. Yar- 
nall, made acting lieutenant by myself, was the 
second officer of this vessel. Neither of them 
would have preferred the command of the Cale- 
donia to the situation he held. 

" I am sorry that my application for experienced 
officers should have been considered unreasonable. 
Mr. Yarnall and Mr. Packett are certainly fine 
young men, and will make valuable officers. But 
two sloops of war and nine other vessels required 
a much greater number of officers than I had, and, 
as I conceived, of more experience. If I have 
been too urgent in this particular, I hope the ar- 
dent desire I had to have under my command a 

* Mr. Magrath had originally been a sea-officer in the navy 
senior to Perry. He had resigned, as an old lie.itenant, in 1809. 



0LI7ER HAZARD PERRY. 213 

force adequate to the object in view, will serve as 
my apology. 

" Heretofore I have considered myself fortunate 
in having but little said in the public prints re- 
specting my force. So far from gi^'ing currency 
to the opinion that is said to prevail, I have en- 
deavoured, as much as possible, to conceal my 
weakness. But in a village like Erie it must at 
all times be impossible to conceal the numbers or 
nature of such a force, but particularly when there 
were several thousand militia in the place, all eager 
to know the exact state of affairs, and as eager to 
communicate to their correspondents the result of 
their inquiries. The commanders of the vessels 
were personally known to the inhabitants; and it 
was easy for any printer to procure a list for pub- 
lication, without applying to me or any officer 
under my command. The list published was with- 
out my knowledge. Nor will it be thought strange 
that General Harrison should have had a tolerably 
correct idea of the nature of the force at Erie, 
when it is known that one of his officers was sta- 
tioned there for several weeks before the squadron 
sailed. I have the honour to enclose you extracts 
of my letters to him on the subject, which I hope 
will not be thought improper when our relative 
situation is considered. I have this day placed 
Lieutenant Turner in command of the Caledonia." 



^14 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

With regard to the imputed extravagance of the 
expenditures, it may be farther remarked, that the 
expenses of the construction of the Erie squadron 
fell far below those of vessels of equal size on Lake 
Ontario ; and, farthermore, that Perry had, of his 
own free-will, relinquished the financial agency for 
the lake, which would have proved a source of 
considerable profit to him, from the belief that it 
would interfere with his more important obliga- 
tions. It is truly painful thus to see Perry reduced 
to the necessity of defending himself The fulness 
of the defence shows, however, the absurd and 
simulated character of the charges. Henceforth 
other cares than those of self-vindication remain 
for him, and the ingenuity of the censorious secre- 
tary is tasked to devise commendatory phrases in- 
stead of detecting imaginary faults. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 215 



CHAPTER VIE. 

TnteIHgence of the Enemy^s Intention to Sail. — Rela- 
tive Force of Squadrons. — Perry returns to Put- 
in Bay. — Last Instructions for Battle. — Enemy 
appears in Sight, standing for our Squadron. — 
Perry sails. — Shift of Wind. — Enemy to Leeioard. 
— Clearing for Action. — Hoisting Battle -flag. — 
Cheers along the Line. — Action commences. — De- 
structive Fire on the Lawrence in hearing down, 
— Supported by Scorpion, Ariel, and Caledonia. 
— Niagara draws to Windward. — Desperate Re- 
sistance of the Lawrence. — She is reduced to a 
Wreck. — Perry shifts to the Niagara. — Perils of 
his Passage. — Sympathy of the Lawrence's Crew, 
— He reaches the Niagara in Safety. — Surrender 
of the Lawrence. — Death of Brooks. — The Niagara 
hreaks the Enemy^s Line. — Engages loth Sides. — 
British Squadron attempts to Wear. — Detroit and 
Queen Charlotte get foul. — Terrible raking Fire. 
— British Surrender. — Appearance of both Squad- 
rons. — Character of the Victory. — Official Letters. 
— Burial of Seamen. — Return to Put-in Bay. — 
Burial of Officers. 

On the fourth of September Captain Perry de- 
spatched the Ohio to Erie for provisions and stores, 
with directions to hasten back, as her services 
would probably be required in a week. On the 



216 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

fifth, our squadron still continuing in Sandusky 
Bay, three citizens arrived from Maiden, who 
communicated to Captain Perry that the British 
army under General Proctor being short of pro- 
visions, it had been determined that the squadron 
should sail to engage ours, and endeavour to open 
a communication with Long Point, so as to draw 
the necessary supplies from the depot at that 
place. Captain Perry now also received more 
accurate information than he had yet obtained as 
to the force of the enemy's squadron. From the 
information he then obtained, with what was af- 
terward learned of the squadron, we will now state 
that it coqgisted of the new and very strongly- 
built ship Detroit, of five hundred tons and nine- 
teen guns, all long except two twenty-four pound 
carronades ; of the ship Queen Charlotte, of four 
hundred tons and seventeen guns, three of them be- 
ing long guns, the Detroit and Queen Charlotte 
having each one of the long guns on a pivot; of the 
schooner Lady Prevost, of two hundred and thirty 
tons and thirteen guns, three being long guns ; of 
the brig Hunter, of one hundred and eighty tons 
and ten guns; of the sloop Little Belt, of one 
hundred tons and three guns, two long twelves 
and one long eighteen ; and of the schooner Chip- 
peway, of one hundred tons, mounting one long 
eighteen ; making in all sixty-three guns, thirty- 
five of which were long. The squadron was com- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 217 

manded by Captain Robert Heriot Barclay, a vet- 
eran officer, who had served with distinction in 
many of those na\ al engagements which had ren- 
dered the name and flag of England so terrible on 
the ocean, and who had been with Nelson at Traf- 
algar, and been desperately wounded in that ever- 
memorable seafight ; more recently, as first lieu- 
tenant of a frigate, he had lost an arm in action 
with the French. He was a skilful seaman, and 
an officer of approved courage. He was second- 
ed by a brave and experienced officer in Captain 
Finnis, with others of honourable standing in their 
profession. He had, within a day or two, received 
a draught of fifty men from the Dover troop-ship, 
then lying at Quebec, and his crews now consist- 
ed of one hundred and fifty men from the royal 
navy, as admitted in the finding of the court-mar- 
tial on Commodore Barclay, with, according to 
James's statement, eighty Canadian sailors, and 
two hundred and forty soldiers from the forty-first 
regiment of the line and the reghnent of New- 
foundland Rangers, chiefly from the former ; ma- 
king together, by their own account, an aggregate 
of four hundred and seventy seamen and soldiers, 
to whom are to be added thirty-two officers known 
to have been in the squadron, making in all five 
hundred and two souls.* 

* That we have not overstated the British force will be seen 
from the following. Prisoners taken in battle and landed at 

T 



218 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

Of our vessels, mounting in all fifty-four guns, 
only the Lawrence and Niagara, each of five hun- 

Camp Portage, as by the official list, containing their names and 
rank, 308 ; killed and wounded in the battle by the British ac- 
count, which we will assume to be correct, though we believe it 
to be underrated, and that, in the confusion of capture, and death 
of commanders and seconds in command, every person thrown 
overboard was duly accounted for, 135 ; provincial officers known 
to have been paroled by Commodore Perry, on account of hav- 
ing families at Maiden, 3 certainly; medical officers detained 
on board the Detroit and Queen Charlotte to cure their sick 
and wounded, 3 ; sea or army lieutenant paroled by Perry, and 
sent to Erie in the Lawrence after the action to confer with the 
British commissary of prisoners, 1 ; making altogether 450 ; 
which, with 52 which we will suppose unaccounted for and left 
with the wounded to go to Erie as too ill for a march of several 
hundred miles, will make 502. We thus, at any rate, know cer- 
tainly that there were 450 men in health on board the British 
squadron when it went into action. Our numbers by the mus- 
ter-roll amounted to 490, of which 116 were sick on the morn- 
ing of the action. Say that 16 of these sick Americans came 
on deck and took part in the battle, it would leave us with but 
390 to 450 of the British. Yet James, in his British Naval His- 
tory, tells us, p. 250, vol. 6, " By adding 80 Canadians and 240 
soldiers from the Newfoundland and 41st regiments to the 50 
British seamen, the crew of Commodore Barclay's squadron is 
made to amount to 345." It should be observed, that he had 
previously stated that Captain Barclay himself brought with him 
19 seamen, and had mentioned the arrival of the draught from 
the Dover, known to amount to 50 seamen. Before the arrival 
of Barclay, and before the building of the Detroit, the rest of 
the squadron, mounting 44 guns, was cruising under Captain 
Finnis. Will any one believe that these vessels, mounting 44 
guns, were only manned by 80 Canadians,, even if the finding of 
the court-martial did not enable us to ascertain the contrary 1 It 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 219 

dred tons, could be considered men-of-war. The 
others were exceedingly frail, and without bul- 
warks. They were chiefly armed with long guns. 
The brigs mounted each twenty guns, eighteen 
thirty-two pound carronades and two long twelves 
They constituted the main dependance of the squad- 
ron, and could only be eflfective against an enemy 
chiefly armed with long guns by coming at once 

must be remembered that Mr. James is aided by a captain in the 
royal navy, who, as such, is supposed to be a mathematician, and 
yet endorses the arithmetic of Mr. James. In the Edinburgh 
Review of 1840, this arithmetic is again endorsed by a Scotch- 
man, also probably a naval captain, who reproduces the figures 
and draws arguments from them without stopping to correct 
them. If the error had been the other way, we should have no 
right to complain. As it is, we think the passage worthy of 
correction, or the misstatement of being made more congruous. 
Another gross delusion practised by the historian and endorsed 
by the reviewer, who claims for it Mr. Cooper's sanction be- 
cause he has not contradicted it, is in assigning to our squadron 
a great superiority of metal, because the weight of shot thrown 
by our ships at a broadside was greatly superior to theirs. This 
superiority grew out of the fact of their having no fewer than 
35 long guns, while we had only 15. Now the weight of long 
^•uns is to carronades of equal calibre more than in the propor- 
tion of three to one. How, then, could they hope to exceed us 
as 35 to 15 in number of long guns, and yet equal us in weight 
>f shot at a broadside 1 These naval gentlemen must have 
known full well that the advantage was on their side while 
making their misstatements. They also knew that the cir- 
cumstances under which the battle was fought gave to the 
British the full benefit of their substitution of length of gun for 
calibre. 



220 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

to close action. The second in command of the 
American squadron was Captain J. D. Elhott, 
who had recently superseded Lieutenant D. Tur- 
ner in the command of the Niagara, on the eve of 
saihng from Erie. The other officers were very 
young men, of little experience though of great 
promise, and sailing-masters taken from the mer- 
chant service, chiefly selected by Captain Perry 
from among his fellow-townsmen, and all of whom 
did great credit to his selection, and proved most 
worthy of his confidence. The whole force in offi- 
cers and men of our squadron amounted to four hun- 
dred and ninety; of these, one hundred and sixteen 
were on the sick-lists of the different vessels on the 
morning of the action, seventy-eight cases being 
of bilious fever. There were a greater number 
of so-called seamen among them than in the 
British squadron, but they were such as remained 
from the draus^hts sent to Lake Ontario after the 
best materials had been selected. They were 
of all colours and climes, reduced in numbers and 
emaciated by disease. The Kentucky volunteers 
were stout fellows, it is true, with gallant spirits, 
but utter strangers to ships, and unaccustomed to 
discipline. Those who have been accustomed to 
look upon the picked soldiers of a British regiment 
will readily believe that the soldiers embarked in 
the British squadron were not less stout than the 
Kentuckians. They had been trained to subordi- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 22] 

aation by years of service, while their voyages to 
every clime whither the ambition of England car- 
ries her triumphant arms had made them familiar 
with the ocean, and at home on shipboard. The 
physical force, like the force in ships and number 
of guns, was greatly in favour of the English. A 
consideration of the intelligence thus obtained as to 
the enemy's superiority did not check Captain Per- 
ry's oft-repeated desire to meet him. It was not 
in his nature to neglect the advice of Commodore 
Chauncey, however tauntingly given, however 
well suited to increase his responsibility in the 
event of failure, '* Never despise your enemy !" 
But, if he did not despise his enemy, he had yet a 
just sense of his own resources, a proper confidence 
in himself. He shared, in a degree in no respect 
inferior, the feeling which made all things possi- 
ble to Nelson, which impelled Paul Jones to en- 
terprises of such seeming hardihood. 

On the receipt of this intelligence of Barclay's 
preparations to encounter him. Perry set sail from 
Sandusky on the sixth of September, and, after re- 
connoitring the enemy off Maiden, and observing 
that he was still at his moorings, returned to Put- 
in Bay, which offered so many facilities for watch- 
ing his movements. Here the last preparations 
were made for battle, the last instructions given to 
regulate the conduct of the subordinate command- 
ers. The commanders of the various vessels, being 
T2 



222 AMERICAN BIOGEAPHY. 

summoned by signal on board the Lawrence, were 
each furnished with Perry's corrected instructions 
for their government ; and he farther explained to 
them verbally his views with regard to whatever 
contingency might occur. He now produced a 
battle-flag, which he had caused to be privately 
prepared by Mr. Hambleton before leaving Erie, 
and the hoisting of which to the main royal mast 
of the Lawrence was to be his signal for action : 
a blue flag, bearing, in large white letters, " Don't 
give up the ship !" the dying words of the hero 
whose name she bore. When about to withdraw, 
he stated to them his intention to bring the enemy 
from the first to close quarters, in order not to lose 
by the short range of his carronades ; and the last 
emphatic injunction with which he dismissed them 
was, that he could not, in case of diflficulty, advise 
them better than in the words of Lord Nelson, " If 
you lay your enemy close alongside, you cannot be 
out of your place !" 

Every preparation had thus been made to meet 
the enemy, and the young commander had done 
all that depended upon him to secure a triumph 
for his country. The crew were all well station- 
ed, had become thoroughly practised at the guns, 
and felt something of the confidence which famil- 
iarity with the weapons they were to use inspires. 
The sickness, however, had extended itself through- 
out the fleet, and operated as a great discourage- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 223 

' ment. On the eighth, all the medical officers were 
ill but Dr. Parsons, who, though but half recover- 
ed, had returned to duty. He was obliged to be 
carried twice through the rain, which continued 
the whole day, to see the surgeon and the other 
sick of the Niagara. By Dr. Parsons's advice, the 
Avater used by the crews was boiled ; it being 
thought that the prevaihng dysentery, and per- 
haps the fever, were caused by the use of the lake 
water. 

The British commander, who had shown a 
chivalrous spirit throughout, did not long keep 
his antagonist in suspense. At sunrise on the 
morning of the tenth of September, the British 
squadron was discovered from the masthead of the 
Lawrence, on the northwestern board, standing to- 
wards Put-in Bay, in which our squadron was ly- 
ing. Barclay's object was evidently attack, not 
an uninterrupted passage to Long Point, which he 
could certainly have had ; and if batde was 
only an alternative with him, to be risked in ex- 
tremity when it could no longer be avoided, he 
could have risked it on his return with supplies 
for the army, if it could no longer be avoided. 
Barclay, choosing his time, might have sailed 
out along the Canada shore to the northward of 
all the islands in the night, and got well to the 
eastward down the lake before Perry's look-out ves- 
sels, which he kept off the Sister Islands, could 



224 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

have advised him of the enemy being out. But 
he bore gallantly down to engage, choosing his 
time so as to have a long day before him, coming 
more than half way towards his enemy, and of- 
fering him battle on his own coast. This fact 
is interesting, as setting completely at rest the 
pretension to any inferiority of force on the part 
of the British, never set up by Barclay or his of- 
ficers at the time, and only since produced by dis- 
ingenuous and unfaithful historians, endeavour- 
ing systematically to account, by an alleged su- 
periority of force, for a victory that, at any rate in 
this instance, was effected by superior gunnery, 
and the extraordinary mental resources of the vic- 
torious commander. 

The fact of the British squadron being in sight 
of the masthead was at once reported to Perry by 
Lieutenant Dulany Forrest, the officer of the deck 
on board the Lawrence. He ordered the signal 
made " under way to get !" In a few minutes the 
whole squadron was under sail, beating out of the 
harbour against a light breeze from southwest, and 
with the boats ahead to tow. 

Snake Island and some other islands of the 
Bass group interposed between our squadron and 
the enemy. By beating round to windward of 
these islands, our squadron would have had a lead- 
ing breeze to run down upon the enemy, and, con- 
sequently, the weather-gauge in the approaching 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 225 

battle. With this view the squadron had com- 
menced beating out. The wind, however, was 
very unsteady, and, as not unfrequently happens 
on such occasions, it headed the squadron off al- 
most every time it crossed the channel and was 
obliged to tack. . Several hours had passed in this 
way. It was near ten o'clock, when Captain Per- 
ry, now become impatient, addressed his sailing- 
master, Mr. Taylor, who was working the Law- 
rence, and asked his opinion as to the probable 
time that would still be required to weather the 
islands. When Mr. Taylor's reply confirmed 
the opinion he had himself formed of the probable 
delay that this evolution would occasion. Perry 
told the master he would wear ship, and run to 
leeward of the islands. Mr. Taylor remarked 
that they would then have to engage the enemy 
from to leeward. Captain Perry replied, " I don't 
care, to windward or to leeward, they shall fight 
to-day !" The signal was accordingly made to 
wear ship ; but, before the evolution was perform- 
ed, the wind shifted suddenly to southeast, and en- 
abled the squadron to clear the islands and keep 
the weather-gauge. The anecdote is illustrative of 
Perry's fixed determination to fight. With an ar- 
mament composed ^hiefly of carronades, in sur- 
rendering the weather-gauge to a squadron having 
a preponderance of long guns, he gave up the 
ability, in a great measure, to choose the distance 



^c.. 



226 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

at which he would fight the enemy, which, with 
such relative armaments, was an advantage of no 
slight importance. Still he was aware that, with 
an enemy so gallantly seeking an encounter, the 
lee-gauge had also its advantages. It would 
have enabled him, while the enemy was bearing 
down, to rake him for a period more or less long, 
according to the strength of the breeze, with his 
whole broadsides, while the enemy would only be 
able to assail him from his bow-chasers ; it would 
have enabled him, moreover, to form his squadron 
in a compact line, so essential to such a mixed 
force, and await the necessarily more disordered 
attack of the enemy. The lee-gauge, too, would 
have afforded great facility for relieving disabled 
vessels, by permitting them to drop under cover of 
the Hne, or might have enabled the whole squad- 
ron, if worsted in a first encounter, to run to lee- 
ward, form a fresh line of battle, and engage a 
second time with increased chances of success. 

At ten o'clock the Lawrence was cleared for 
action, shot collected in the racks and in circular 
grummets of rope, pistols and cutlasses brought 
by the boarders to quarters, preventer braces rove, 
matches lit, and the decks wet and sanded, to pre- 
vent the explosion of scattering powder, and cre- 
ate a secure foothold amid the approaching car- 
nage. At this hour the enemy, having lost all 
hope of obtaining the weather -gauge by manoeu- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 227 

vring, and observing our squadron coming out, hove 
to in line of battle on the larboard tack, with the 
heads of his vessels to the southward and west- 
ward. The wind continued light from southeast, 
enabling the vessels to advance at the rate of near 
three knots an hour ; the weather was serene, and 
the lake perfectly still. There had been a slight 
rain in the morning ; but, with the shift of wind, 
the clouds had blown away, and the day assumed 
all the splendour of our early autumn. The Brit- 
ish vessels were freshly painted and in high condi- 
tion : being hove to in close order, with the morn- 
ing sun shining upon their broadsides, and their red 
ensigns gently unfolding to the breeze, they made a 
very gallant appearance as our squadron bore down 
to engage them, with the wind on the larboard quar- 
ter. It was now discovered that Barclay had form- 
ed his line with the Chippeway, of one long eigh- 
teen on a pivot, in the van ; the Detroit, of nineteen 
guns, second in the line ; the Hunter, of ten guns, 
third ; the Queen Charlotte, of seventeen guns, 
fourth ; the Lady Prevost, of thirteen guns, fifth ; 
and the Little Belt, of three guns, sixth. Captain 
Perry now remodelled his line of battle, so as to 
bring his heaviest vessels opposite to their desig- 
nated antagonists. Claiming /or himself the most 
formidable antagonist, he passed ahead of the Ni- 
agara so as to encounter the Detroit, and stationed 
the Scorpion, of two long guns, ahead, and the- Ari- 



228 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

el, of four short twelves, on his weather bow, where, 
with her light battery, and having, like the other 
small vessels, no bulwarks, she might be partially 
under cover. The Caledonia, of three long twen- 
ty-fours, came next, to encounter the Hunter ; the 
Niagara next, so as to be opposite her designated 
antagonist, the Queen Charlotte ; and the Somers, 
of two long thirty-twos, the Porcupine, of one long 
thirty-two, Tigress, of one long twenty-four, and 
frippe, of one long thirty-two, in succession to- 
wards the rear, to encounter the Lady Prevost and 
Little Belt. The line being formed, Perry now 
bore up for the enemy, distant at ten o'clock about 
six miles* He now produced the lettered burgee 
which, at the last assembly of his commanders to 
receive their instructions, he had exhibited as the 
concerted signal for battle. Having unfurled it, 
he mounted on a gun-slide, and, calling his crew 
about him, thus briefly addressed them : " My 
brave lads! this flag contains the last words of 
Captain Lawrence ! Shall I hoist it ?" " Ay ! 
ay ! sir !" resounded from every voice in the ship, 
and the flag was briskly swayed to the main royal 
masthead of the Lawrence. The encouragement 

* Mr. Cooper and Mr. Burgess say nine miles. This cannot 
be correct. Our squadron was sailing at the rate of two, or, at 
the most, two and ^ hftlf or three knots ; and the action be- 
gan at a quarter before twelve, at the distance of a mile and a 
half. The British squadron, though hove to, must have had a 
headway and drift together of half a knot. 



O-uIVER HAZARD PERRY. 229 

;jf these few brief words, and, still more, the mild 
and cheerful smile with which they were uttered ; 
the habitual expression of his countenance, which 
gave such a winning fascination to his manners, 
imparted a rare spirit and alacrity to the crew ; 
they responded to their young and beloved com- 
mander's appeal with three hearty and enthusi- 
astic cheers, which, as the battle-flag unfolded and 
became visible to the crews of the other vessels, 
were responded to enthusiastically throughout the 
line. In this moment of heroic excitement, all the 
sick that were capable of motion came on deck to ^ 
offer their feeble services in defence of their coun- 
try j not a little excited thereto by the reflection 
that their young commander, reduced, like them- 
selves, by a wasting disease, and hardly recovered, 
was standing bravely at his post. 

As the ordinary mealtime was certain to find 
them engaged, the noonday grog was now served, 
Biid the bread-bags freely resorted to ; after which 
all repaired once more to their quarters. Perry 
now went round the deck carefully examining his 
battery gun by gun, to see that everything was in 
ample order, stopping at each and exchanging 
words with the captain. For all he had some 
pleasant joke, some expression of encouragement. 
Seeing some of the Constitution's, he said to them, 
" Well, boys ! are you ready ?" " All ready, your 
honour !" was the brief reply, with a general touch 
U 



230 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

of the hat or the handkerchief which some of the 
old salts had substituted for their more cumbrous 
trucks. " But I need not say anything to you," he 
added ; " you know how to beat those fellows." 
Passing on, he exclaimed, with a smile of recog- 
nition, " Ah ! here are the Newport boys ! they 
will do their duty, I warrant !"* 

A dead silence of an hour and a half succeed- 
ed, during which our squadron continued slowly to 
approach the enemy, steering for the head of his 
line on a course forming about half a right angle 
with it, the headmost vessels under easy sail, the 
others with everything set. Every preparation 
for battle had been long since made. The inter- 
val of inactivity, so trying to the warrior, was 
passed in silence, or in low and brief requests, 
among officers and men, to render to each other, in 
case of death, some office of friendship, the survi- 
ver to take charge of the effects of the deceased^ 
or to break to his relations the news of their be- 

* What would he have given at this moment for all the 
"Newport boys" who had accompanied him to Ontario, and 
more than half of whom had been detained there ; those " New- 
port boys" of whom he had written to the secretary, when of- 
fering his services for the lakes, " There are fifty or sixty men 
under my command that are remarkably active and strong, capa- 
ble of performing any service. In the hope that I should have 
the honour of commanding them whenever they should meet the 
enemy, I have taken unwearied pains in preparing them for such 
an event. I beg, therefore, sir, that we may be employed in 
some way in which we can be serviceable to our country." 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 231 

reavement. Perry gave Mr. Hambleton, who 
stood near him in charge of the after guns, direc- 
tions how to act with regard to his private affairs 
in the event of his death. He leaded his pubUc 
papers in readiness to be thrown overboard, and 
destroyed his private ones. " It appeared," says 
Mr. Hambleton, " to go hard with him to part 
with his wife's letters. After giving them a hasty 
reading, he tore them to ribands, observing that, 
let what would happen, the enemy should not read 
them, and closed by remarking, ' this is the most 
important day of my life.' " 

The suspense, though long, had its end. Sud- 
denly a bugle w^as heard to sound on board the 
Detroit, the signal for loud and concerted cheers 
throughout the British squadron. Soon after, be- 
ing a quarter before meridian, the enemy's flag 
ship Detroit, then distant about a mile and a half, 
commenced the action by firing a single shot at 
the Lawrence, which did not take effect. Signal 
was now made for each vessel to engage her op- 
ponent, as designated in previous orders. At this 
time the Ariel, Scorpion, LawTence, Caledonia, 
and Niagara were all in their respective stations, 
in the order they are named, distant from each 
oftier about half a cable's length. The other ves- 
sels, not sailing quite so well, were a little out of 
their stations astern. In addition to the inferiority 
of our force, we had a serious disadvantage from 



232 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

its being broken up into greater numbers. The 
line of battle prescribed half a cable's length for 
the distance of the vessels from each other, the 
least, probably, that could have been adopted. 
Hence, having three more vessels than the enemy, 
our line necessarily overspread his not less than one 
thousand feet. Thus, besides all the other disad- 
vantages of the inferior size of our vessels, the en- 
emy could bring to bear upon them a heavier bat- 
tery in a smaller space, and thus, being stronger 
at any given point, had a greater superiority even 
than his nominal one. 

The second shot from a long gun of the De- 
troit, five minutes later than the first, took effect 
on the Lawrence as she fanned down towards the 
enemy, passing through both bulwarks, when fire 
was also opened from the long guns of all the 
British squadron, which, as they lay drawn up in 
line of battle, did not materially differ in distance 
from the Lawrence and the two schooners on her 
weather bow. At five minutes before meridian, 
the Lawrence, beginning to suffer considerably 
from the enemy's fire, returned it from her long 
twelve pounder, when the schooners on the weath- 
er bow, being ordered by trumpet to commence 
the action, and the Caledonia and Niagara astern, 
likewise opened their fire with their long guns. 
The sternmost vessels soon after opened also, but 
at too great a distance to do much injury. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 233 

Owing to the superiority of the enemy in long 
guns — the entire armament of the Detroit, with 
the exception of,two carronades, being of this de- 
scription — this cannonade was greatly to the disad- 
vantage of the Lawrence, against which the Brit- 
ish fire was chiefly directed. In order to hasten 
the moment when his carronades would take ef- 
fect, and enable him to return more fully the fire 
of the enemy. Perry now made all sail again, and 
ordered the word to be passed by trumpet for the 
vessels astern to close up and take their stations. 
The order was responded to and transmitted along 
the line by Captain Elliott, of the Niagara, whose 
vessel was stationed next but one astern of the 
Lawrence, and was therefore, at the commence- 
ment of the action, quite near the commodore, 
and in a position to accompany him in closing 
with the enemy. The Niagara did not, however, 
make sail with the Lawrence, and accompany her 
down into close action, but continued at long 
shots, using only her long twelve-pounder. 

Meantime, the Lawrence fanned slowly down 
towards the enemy, suffering terribly. At merid- 
ian, supposing himself within range of the car- 
ronades, he luffed up and fired the first division 
on the starboard side. Discovering that his shot 
did not tell, he bore away again, and continued 
steadily to approach the enemy until a quarter past 
meridian, when he opened his whole starboard 
U2 



234 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

broadside, and still continued to approach until 
within about three hundred and fifty yards, when 
he hauled up on a course parallel to that of the 
enemy, and opened a rapid and most destructive 
fire on the Detroit. So steady had been the ap- 
proach of the Lawrence in bearing down, and so 
unwavering the purpose of her commander, that 
the enemy had apprehended an intention to board. 
Captain Perry's only object had been to get the en- 
emy within effective reach of his carronades, who 
hitherto had derived great advantage from his 
superiority in long guns ; and a half hour of al- 
most unresisted cannonade upon the Lawrence, 
from twenty long guns which the British squadron 
showed on one side in battery, caused great car- 
nage and destruction on board of her. Neverthe- 
less, the action was now commenced from her with 
spirit and effect ; and, notwithstanding the over- 
powering odds with which she was assailed, the 
whole battery of the enemy, amounting, in all, to 
thirty-four guns,* being almost entirely directed 
against her, she continued to assail the enemy 
with steady and unwavering effort. In this un- 
equal contest she was nobly vSustained by the Scor- 
pion and Ariel on her weather bow, which, being 
but slightly noticed by the enemy or injured by 
his shot, were enabled to direct their fire upon him 

* The enemy had a pivot-gun in each of the large vessels as 
well as the small. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 235 

with sure aim and without interruption. The 
commander of the Caledonia, animated by the 
same gallant spirit and sense of duty, followed 
the Lawrence into close action, and closed with 
her antagonist, the Hunter; but the Niagara, 
which, when the battle began, had been within 
hail of the Lawrence, did not follow her down 
towards the enemy's line so as to encounter her 
antagonist, the Queen Charlotte. She had not 
made sail when the Lawrence did ; but got em- 
barrassed with the Caledonia, Instead of passing 
astern and to leeward of her to close with the 
Queen Charlotte, which was next to the Hunter. 
Captain Elliott hailed the Caledonia, and ordered 
Lieutenant D. Turner to bear up and make room 
for him to pass. Though this officer was in the 
station assigned to him astern of the Lawrence, 
and pressing down to engage his antagonist, the 
brig Hunter, yet he obeyed the order of his supe- 
rior, without stopping to inquire whether that su- 
perior, as a subordinate like himself, had a right 
to give an order involving a change in the order 
of battle. Lieutenant Turner at once put his helm 
up, and made room for the Niagara by bearing 
down towards the enemy. Captain Elliott did 
not, however, follow in the Niagara, but sheered 
to windward, and, by braihng up his jib and back- 
ing his main topsail, balanced the efforts of his 
sails so as to keep his vessel stationary, and pre- 



236 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

vent her approac-hing the enemy. The Niagara 
did not, therefore, approach the enemy's Hne near 
enough to use her carronades, but remained at 
long shots, firing only her long twelve-pounder, 
doing little injury, and receiving less fi:om casual 
shots aimed at the Lawrence and Caledonia, of 
which she was partially under cover. 

At half past twelve, the Queen Charlotte, find- 
ing that she could not, with her light guns, engage 
her expected antagonist, the Niagara, on account 
of her distance off, filled her main topsail, and, 
passing the Hunter, closed up astern of the Detroit, 
and opened her fire at closer quarters upon the 
Lawrence. In this unequal contest, the Lawrence 
continued to struggle desperately against such over- 
powering numbers. The first division of the star- 
board guns was directed against the Detroit, and 
the second against the Queen Charlotte, with an 
occasional shot from her after gun at the Hunter, 
which lay on her quarter, and with which the 
Caledonia continued to sustain a hot though un- 
equal engagement. The Scorpion and Ariel, from 
their stations on the weather bow of the Law- 
rence, made every effort that their inconsiderable 
force allowed. The Niagara had taken a station, 
as we have seen, which prevented her from firing, 
except with her long gun, on the sternmost of the 
enemy's vessels. The small vessels at the rear of 
our own line were too remote to do more than 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 237 

keep up a distant cannonade with the nearest ves- 
sels of the enemy. 

Overwhelming as was the superiority of the 
force directed against the Lawrence, being in the 
ratio of thirty-four guns to her ten in battery, she 
continued, with the aid of the Scorpion, Ariel, and 
Caledonia, to sustain the contest for more than two 
hours, her fire being kept up with uninterrupted 
spirit, so long as her guns continued mounted and 
in order. Never was the advantage of thorough 
training at the guns more exemplified than in the 
case of the Lawrence. The surgeon remarks that 
he could discover no perceptible difference in the 
rapidity of the firing of the guns over his head du- 
ring the action; throughout, the actual firing seem- 
ed as rapid as in exercise before the battle. By this 
time, however, her rigging had been much shot 
away, and was hanging down or towing overboard, 
sails torn to pieces, spars wounded and falling upon 
deck, braces and bowlines cut, so as to render it im- 
possible to trim the yards or keep the vessel un- 
der control. Such was the condition of the vessel 
aloft ; on deck the destruction was even more ter- 
rible. One by one the guns were dismounted, 
until only one remained that could be fired ; the 
bulwarks were so entirely beaten in that the ene- 
my's round shot passed completely through. The 
slaughter was dreadful, beyond anything recorded 
in naval history. Of one hundred well men who 



238 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

had gone into action, twenty-two were killed and 
sixty-one wounded. The killed were hastily re- 
moved out of the way of the guns, and the wound- 
ed passed below" and crowded together on the 
berth-deck. It was impossible for Doctor Parsons, 
the assistant surgeon of the Lawrence, the only 
medical officer who was in health to perform duty 
in the squadron, to attend to such a press of wound- 
ed ', bleeding arteries were hastily secured, shat- 
tered limbs supported by splints, and those that 
were nearly severed by cannon-balls hastily re- 
moved. Owing to the shallowness of these ves- 
sels, the wounded w^ere necessarily all above the 
water-line, and exposed to be again struck by can- 
non-balls passing through the vessel's side ; thus, 
midshipman Laub, while moving away from the 
surgeon, with a tourniquet on his arm, to resume 
his duties upon deck, was struck by a cannon-ball, 
which traversed his chest; and a Narraganset In- 
dian, named Charles Poughigh, was killed in like 
manner by a cannon-ball after his leg had been 
taken offi Perry had a favourite spaniel on board 
the Lawrence, which had been left in a state-room 
below to be out of the way. The confinement, 
the noise, and the groans of the wounded, terrified 
the poor animal, and at each discharge it growled 
and barked with affected rage, or howled most 
piteously. In the course of the action, a shot 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 239 

through which the dog immediately thrust its head, 
yelping terribly for release. Its strange manoeu- 
vres were too much for the gravity even of the suf- 
fering wounded, and some of them broke forth into 
loud and intemperate laughter. Meantime Perry 
continued to keep up a fire from his single remain- 
ing carronade, though to man it he was obliged to 
send repeated requests to the surgeon to spare him 
another hand from those engaged in removing the 
wounded, until the last had been taken. It is re- 
corded by the surgeon, that when these messages 
arrived, several of the wounded crawled upon deck 
to lend a feeble aid at the guns. At length the 
commander's own personal aid, with that of the 
purser, Mr. Hambleton, and chaplain, Mr. Breese, 
was necessary to fire this sole remaining gun, and 
it, too, was at last disabled. 

The conduct of Perry throughout this trying 
scene was such as to inspire the most unbounded 
confidence in his followers, and to sustain through- 
out their courage and enthusiasm. Free from ir- 
ritation and undue excitability, the necessary or- 
ders were given with precision, and obeyed with 
steady alacrity. Undismayed amid the surround- 
ing carnage, calm, collected, and even cheerful, 
his eye became the rallying-point to which those 
of his followers reverted after each new disaster, 
and received from its electric flash a kindred en- 
couragement. After the fearful havoc which 



240 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

would occasionally be made among a gun's crew 
by a single round shot, or a stand of grape or 
canister, the survivers would for a moment turn 
to Perry, exchange a glance with him, and step 
into the places of their comrades. Those that lay 
weltering on the deck, some in the agony of ex- 
piring nature, would contrive to get their faces 
towards him, and, fixing their eye upon his, seem 
to seek, as an only reward for that life's blood 
which was ebbing away in the cause of their 
country, an assurance that they had done their 
duty. They seemed to die cheerfully in the con- 
sciousness that, if they had fallen, his more impor- 
tant life was still spared to secure the triumph of 
their country. 

The humane heart of the commander could not 
yield to the painful feelings which this spectacle, 
under other circumstances, would have rendered 
overpowering. The animating sense of the re- 
sponsibility that weighed upon him, and confi- 
dence in his own resources, enabled him to main- 
tain his cheerfulness. In the hottest of the fight, 
Yarnall, the first lieutenant, came to Perry, and 
told him that the ofl[icers in the first division under 
his command were all killed or disabled. Yar- 
nall had received a wound in the forehead and 
another in the neck, from which the blood flowed 
profusely over his face and person, while his nose, 
which had been struck by a splinter, was swollen 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 241 

to a most portentous size. Perry, after expressing 
some good-humoured astonishment at his tragi- 
comical appearance, sent him the required aid; 
but soon after he returned with the same com- 
plaint of a destruction of his officers, to which 
he repKed, " You must endeavour to make out by 
yourself; I have no more to furnish you." In ad- 
dition to the other oddities of Yarnall's appear- 
ance, some of the hammocks were struck in the 
nettings, and the contents of the mattresses, chiefly 
stuffed with the down of flag-tops or cat-tails, 
were distributed in the air, having much the ap- 
pearance of falling snow. This substance, light- 
ing on Yarnall's face and adhering to the blood, 
gave it, as Dr. Parsons describes it, the appear- 
ance of a huge owl. When he went below at 
the close of the action, even the wounded were 
moved to merriment by his ludicrous appearance, 
and one of them exclaimed, " The devil is come 
for his own." 

Another incident is characteristic of the calm 
cheerfulness of Perry and of his officers. Dulany 
Forrest, the second lieutenant, was standing im- 
mediately beside Perry, attending to his division, 
when a grape-shot struck him in the breast, and 
he fell upon the deck. Perry raised him up, and, 
observing no appearance- of injury — for the shot 
had spent its force — uttered some cheering assu- 
rance to Forrest that he could not be hurt. The 
X 



242 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

lieutenant, who had only been stunned, presently 
became conscious; and, pulling out the shot, which 
had lodged in the bosom of his waistcoat, put it 
quietly in his pocket, replying, " No, sir, I am not 
hurt, but this is my shot !" Several cases occurred, 
during this scene of carnage, in which men were 
shot down while in the act of speaking to the 
commander. One of these was that of a captain 
of a gun, which was somewhat out of order, whom 
Perry had approached to offer assistance. The 
sailor, who was a noble-looking fellow, being 
one of the " Constitution's," was in the act of 
drawing himself up, with a fine, sailor-like air, tc 
fire, when a twenty-four pound shot passed througl 
his body, and he fell without a groan at the feet of 
his commander. 

Another incident no less painfully illustrates the 
carnage which occurred on the deck of the Law- 
rence, and the destruction by which her command- 
er was so closely surrounded. The command of 
the marines of the Lawrence was intrusted to 
Lieutenant John Brooks, a gay, amiable, and in- 
telligent young officer, whose numerous good qual- 
ities were enhanced in their effects by the rarest 
personal beauty. He was addressing Perry with 
a smile, and in an animated tone, with regard to 
the battle, when a cannon ball struck him in the 
thigh, shattering him in the most horrible manner, 
and carrying him to the other side of the deck 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 243 

The sudden torment of his wound wrung from him 
piercing cries. He implored his commander to re- 
Keve him from pain too great for endurance by 
shooting him dead. Perry ordei*ed some of the 
marines to take him below. Ere this could be ef- 
fected, a mulatto boy, only twelve years old, who 
was Brooks's servant, came with a cartridge to a 
neighbouring gun, and, seeing Brooks down, threw 
himself on the deck with frantic cries, exclaiming 
that his master was killed. When Brooks was ta- 
ken below, he returned sobbing to his duty. One 
occurrence for a moment during the action disturb- 
ed the settled equanimity of Perry. He beheld 
his young brother, then but twelve years old, who 
had already, during the action, received two mus- 
ket balls through his hat, and had his clothes torn 
by splinters, suddenly struck down at his side by 
a hammock torn from the nettings by a cannon 
ball. Fortunately, the shot itself had missed him. 
He was only stunned ; and, in a few moments, his 
anxious brother had the satisfaction of seeing him 
return to his duty. 

At length, about half past two, when the last 
gun of the Lawrence had become disabled and un- 
fit for farther use — when, of all his crew. Captain 
Perry could only find throughout his vessel eigh- 
teen persons, besides his little brother and him- 
self, undisabled by wounds — it became evident to 
him that he must have recourse to other means 



244 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

within his command in order to win the battle. 
Repeatedly during the engagement, Mr. Taylor, 
whose duty as sailing-master placed him beside 
the commander, to manoeuvre the Lawrence under 
his orders, had asked Perry if he observed the 
conduct of the Niagara, which was lying far to 
windward, out of reach of the Queen Charlotte, 
her antagonist, and the very different conduct of 
the little Caledonia, which had so gallantly borne 
down to relieve the Lawrence from the enemy's 
fire. Similar remarks were made among them- 
selves by the officers and crew. The wounded, 
as they went below, and were asked for news of 
how the day was going, each had the same tale to 
relate of the Niagara keeping aloof and faihng to 
relieve the Lawrence from the fire of the Queen 
Charlotte. As, then, the last gun of the Lawrence 
became useless, and the ship, now an unmanage- 
able wreck, was beginning to drop astern, Captain 
Perry was looking round., as the smoke cleared 
away, to estimate the real condition of his resour- 
ces, when Lieutenant Forrest again called his at- 
tention to the strange manoeuvres of the Niagara, 
at this time on the larboard beam of the Lawrence, 
directly opposite to the enemy, while the Caledonia 
was passing the starboard beam between the Law- 
rence and the enemy. " That brig," said Forrest, 
" will not help us ; see how he keeps off; he will 
not come to close action." " Pll fetch him up," 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 245 

was the commodore's reply ; and he immediately 
ordered his boat. He remarked that the Niajrara 

o 

did not appear to be much injured, and that the 
American flag should not be hauled down from 
over his head on that day. Giving Mr. Yarnall 
command of the Lawrence, Perry stepped down 
the larboard gangway into his boat, telling his of- 
ficers, as he shoved off, with the prophetic confi- 
dence of a hero conscious of his pow'ers, " If a vic- 
tory is to be gained, I'll gain it !" 

At half past two, when Perry left the Lawrence, 
the Niagara w^as passing her weather or larboard 
beam at the distance of nearly half a mile. The 
breeze had freshened, her main topsail was filled, 
and she was passing the British squadron rap- 
idly. Elated with the prospect of getting on 
board of this fresh vessel, and trying his prowess 
upon the host of enemies, whose efficiency his pre- 
vious desperate resistance had essentially diminish- 
ed, he w-ent off in gallant style and full of ardour 
from the Lawrence, standing erect in his boat, and 
urging his crew to give way cheerily. The ene- 
my, observing this movement, quickly penetrated 
his design ; and apprehending the consequences of 
the Niagara, then entirely fresh, passing under the 
immediate command of the superior officer, who 
had fought the Lawrence with such skill and ob- 
stinacy against the whole British squadron for 
more than two hours and a half, they immediate]} 
X2 



246 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

directed a fire of great guns and musketry at his 
boat, and exerted all their energies to destroy 
it. Several of the oars were splintered, the boat 
was traversed by musket balls, and the crew cov- 
ered with spray from the round shot and grape 
that were striking the water on every side. Per- 
ry, unconscious or unmindful of the danger, con- 
tinued to stand erect, until his brave crew im- 
plored him not to expose himself; and, losing for 
a moment their sense of subordination in sympa- 
thy for his danger and anxiety for the perilled 
glory of their country, threatened to lay upon tlieir 
oar unless he sat down. Thus entreated, he yield- 
ed to their wishes; and they gave way with a 
hearty good-will. The breeze had now freshened, 
and the Niagara, having set her foresail, was 
ranging rapidly past the enemy, in a direction 
which would soon have carried her entirely out 
of the action. With all the exertions of the boat's 
crew, nearly fifteen minutes were passed in reach- 
ing the Niagara. 

By none of the squadron was this critical move- 
ment so anxiously watched as by the fourteen 
brave fellows who alone remained unhurt of the 
officers and crew of the Lawrence ; the life of 
their beloved commander, tenfold endeared to 
them by their recent observance of his heroism ; 
the fate of the day ; the glory of their country ; 
and their own condition as prisoners or victors, 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 247 

all dependant on that life, wrought their feelings 
to the most intense and painful sympathy. Pow- 
erless to do anything for their own protection or 
for the farther annoyance of the enemy, they 
clustered along the weather bulwarks of the Law- 
rence, and watched each dip of the oars that were 
carrying Perry along at a rate which seemed slow 
to their impatience : each ball that seemed des- 
tined to destroy him would have been more wel- 
come to themselves. But he moved on unscathed, 
as amid the wreck of the Lawrence. And now 
they see him cross the gangway of the Niagara, 
and their joy bursts forth in enthusiastic cheers. 

The feelino^s of the few survivers and wounded 
of the Lawrence were thus relieved from a pain- 
ful solicitude amounting to agony. They felt that 
all was now safe, and that they had not fought, 
nor their less fortunate shipmates bled and died in 
vain. While this crisis had absorbed them, the 
brig, with her colours still flying, had continued 
to be a principal object for the enemy's fire. It 
became the duty of Lieutenant Yarnall, as com- 
mander, to spare the farther destruction of the 
brave fellows intrusted to him, and the frightful 
slaughter of the wounded below. He had a brief 
consultation with the second lieutenant, Dulany 
Forrest, and Sailing-master W. V. Taylor, and, 
with their concurrence, determined to surrender. 
It may be here remarked that all three of these 



.148 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

officers were wounded, though continuing at their 
posts. The colours were therefore hauled down. 
Their descent was greeted by cheers from all the 
British vessels, the crews of which appeared ex- 
ultingly on their weather bulwarks, waving tri- 
umphant defiance at their enemies. But the hope 
was delusive. The first act was over, and its close 
had imparted to the British an unsubstantial en- 
couragement ; the second was to terminate in a 
catastrophe not less brilliant than they might have 
anticipated, but far different. On the berth-deck 
of the Lawrence, the explanation of the British 
cheers by the surrender of their vessel had filled 
the hearts of the wounded, with which the deck 
was literally covered, with the deepest despond- 
ency. The assistance of the humane and indefat- 
igable young surgeon was rejected, and scarcely 
any exclamations met his ear but " Sink the ship ! 
Let us all sink together !" Such is the desire to 
conquer, such the heroism of Americans, when 
trained and inspired by a hero. It was in the 
midst of this despondency that the chivalrous 
young Brooks, whose life-blood had been fast 
ebbing away, breathed forth a spirit worthy of the 
fair temple in which it was enshrined. Mr. Sam- 
uel Hambleton, purser of the Lawrence, who had 
preferred a post of danger on deck to the usual 
station of his grade in charge of passing powder 
below, had received a severe wound in the shoul- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 249 

der, by which it was completely shattered, while 
working by the side of his noble commander, 
like a common sailor, at the last gun. For want 
of space in the wardroom, Hambleton was laid 
on the same mattress x^-ith Brooks, face to face 
w^th his dying messmate and friend. The in- 
tense suffering which had impelled him, in the 
first moment of being struck, to ask for death at 
the hand of his commander, had passed away, and 
he lay calmly expecting his end. Never before 
had Hambleton been so much impressed with his 
surpassing beauty. While the fever from his 
wound had imparted a surprising lustre to his 
ordinarily radiant countenance, its expression gave 
the idea of a spirit sublimated by approaching re- 
lease from the burden of mortality. The glory 
of his country, the welfare of his friends — feelings 
worthy of angels — were still uppermost in his 
thoughts. He inquired, with earnest solicitude, 
how the battle went, and as to the fate of Perry. 
The Lawrence had surrendered; but Perry had 
reached the Niagara, to bring her up to take her 
share in the battle, which, earlier taken, might have 
spared so many lives. Brooks briefly directed the 
disposition of his affairs, the messages to be sent 
to his father and friends, and commended his faith- 
ful mulatto boy to their protection and kindness. 
While he was yet speaking in a failing tone, Ilam- 
bleton's attention was diverted by favourable news 



850 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

from deck, and the tumultuous excitement of joy 
which it occasioned among the wounded. When 
he turned to communicate it to Brooks, his spirit 
had departed. 

But the enemy had other employment than to 
take possession of the surrendered Lawrence. As 
Perry reached the deck of the Niagara, he was 
met at the gangway by Captain EUiott, who " in- 
quired how the day was going. Captain Perry 
replied, badly : that he had lost almost all of his 
men, and that his ship was a wreck ; and asked 
what the gunboats were doing so far astern. Cap- 
tain Elliott offered to go and bring them up j and, 
Captain Perry consenting, he sprung into the boat 
and went off on that duty."* 

Perry's first order on board the Niagara was 
to back the main topsail, and stop her from run- 
ning out of the action ; his next, to brail up the 
main trysail, put the helm up, and bear down 
before the wind, with squared yards, for the en- 
emy, altering the course from that which Cap- 
tain Elliott had been steering a whole right an- 

* The above account of the interview betw^een Captain Perry 
and Captahi Elliott is taken from Mr. Hambleton's journal, as 
related to him by Perry on the evening of the battle. The 
reader will see in the sequel how differently the interview is de- 
scribed by Captain Elliott. Perry also told Mr. Hambleton in 
the evening that he " found the Niagara in perfect fighting or- 
der, uninjured in her hull or crew. ' From that moment,' said 
he, * I was confident of victory.' " 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 251 

gle ; at the same time, he set top-gallant-sails, and 
hove out the signal for close action. As the an- 
swering pendants were displayed along the line, 
the order was greeted by hearty cheers, evincive 
of the admiration awakened throughout the squad- 
ron by the hardy manoeuvre of the Niagara, and 
of renewed confidence of victory. By great ef- 
forts, Lieutenant Holdup Stevens, who had been 
astern of the line in the Trippe, soon closed up 
to the assistance of the Caledonia, and the re- 
maining vessels approached rapidly, to take a 
more active part in the battle, under the influ- 
ence of the increasing breeze. 

The helm had been put up on board the Niag- 
ara, sail made, and the signal for close action hove 
out at forty-five minutes after two, the instant af- 
ter Perry had boarded her. With the increased 
breeze, seven or eight minutes sufficed to traverse 
the distance of more than half a mile which 
still separated the Niagara from the enemy. As 
the enemy beheld her coming boldly down, re- 
serving her fire until it coukl be delivered with 
terrible effect, they poured theirs in upon her in a 
raking position, and the Detroit made an effort to 
weai' in order to present her starboard broadside 
to the Niagara, several of the larboard guns being 
disabled. As this evolution commenced on board 
the Detrojt, the Queen Charlotte was running up 
under her lee. The evolution of wearing, which 



252 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

should properly have commenced with the stern- 
most and leewardmost vessel, not havinof been 
imitated with sufficient quickness by the Queen, 
the consequence was, that the latter ran her bow- 
sprit and head booms into the mizzen rigging of 
the Detroit, and the two British ships got foul of 
each other, and continued in this unfortunate pre- 
dicament, when the Niagara, having shortened sail 
to check her velocity, passed slowly under the 
bows of the Detroit, within half pistol-shot, and 
poured into both vessels, as they lay entangled, a 
deadly and awfully destructive fire of grape and 
canister ; the larboard guns, which were likewise 
manned, were directed with equally murderous 
effect into the sterns of the Lady Prevost, which 
had passed to the head of the line, and the Little 
Belt ; the marines, at the same time, cleared their 
decks of every one to be seen above the rails. 
The piercing shrieks of the mortally wounded on 
every side showed how terrific had been the car- 
nage. Passing under the lee of the two British 
ships, which had now got clear, but were but 
shghtly separated, Captain Perry, brought by the 
wind on the starboard tack, with his head to the 
northward and eastward, and backing the Niag- 
ara's main topsail to deaden her headway, contin- 
ued to pour his starboard broadside into the Queen 
Charlotte and the Hunter, which lay astern of her. 
Some of his shots passed through the Queen Char- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 253 

lotte's ports into the Detroit. At this juncture the 
small vessels also came into close action to wind- 
ward, and poured in a destructive lire of grape 
and canister ; their shot and that of the Niagara, 
whenever it missed its mark, passing the enemy, 
and taking effect reciprocally on our own vessels. 

All resistance now ceased : an officer appear- 
ed on the taffrail of the Queen, to signify that 
she had struck ; and her example was immediately 
followed by the Detroit. Both vessels struck in 
about seven minutes after the Niagara opened this 
most destructive fire, and about fifteen minutes 
after Perry took command of h^r. The Hunter 
struck at the same time, as did the Lady Prevost, 
w^hich lay to leeward under the guns of the Ni- 
agara. 

The battle had begun on the part of the enemy 
at a quarter before meridian ; at three the Queen 
Charlotte and Detroit surrendered, and all resist- 
ance was at an end. As the cannonade ceased 
and the smoke blew over, the two squadrons, now 
owning one master, were found completely min- 
gled. The shattered Lawrence, whose condition 
sufficiently attested where had been the brunt and 
burden of the day, lay to windward, a tattered and 
helpless WTCck, with the flag of liberty once more 
flying over her ; the Niagara, with the signal for 
close action still set, lay close under the lee of the 
Detroit, Queen Charlotte, and Hunter j the Cale- 
Y 



254 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

donia, Scorpion, and Trippe, which had gallantly 
followed the Niagara through the enemy's line, 
had taken a position to leeward very favourable 
for preventing the enemy's escape. As the smoke 
passed to leeward, the Chippeway and Little Belt 
were discovered bearing up towards Maiden un- 
der a press of sail. The Scorpion and Trippe 
went immediately in pursuit, and, after a few 
shots, compelled them to surrender. 

And now began the proud yet melancholy task 
of taking possession of the enemy's ships. On 
boarding the Detroit, the officer sent from the Ni- 
agara found her in a condition only less pitiable 
than the Lawrence had been left in by Perry ; her 
gaft and mizzen topmast hanging over the taffi^ail 
and quarter ; her masts and yards badly wounded ; 
all her braces shot away, not a single stay stand- 
ing forward, and her stout oak bulwarks very 
much shattered. Many of the thirty-two pound 
shots were sticking in her side : they had been 
fired from the carronades before the Lawrence 
had got to close quarters. On deck the destruc- 
tion and carnage had been terrible : many of the 
guns were dismounted, and the deck was strewed 
with the killed and wounded, and slippery with 
blood. The deck was found nearly deserted of 
officers and men, and in charge of the second 
lieutenant, Mr. Inglis, the first lieutenant hav- 
ing been killed towards the middle of the ac- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 255 

tion, and Commodore Barclay ha\ing been most 
dangerously wounded somewhat earlier by a grape 
shot in the thigh. This heroic officer, after hav- 
ing been carried below and placed in the hands 
of the surgeon, made use of the first moment of 
returning consciousness to cause himself to be 
again borne upon deck. When the Niagara bore 
down and dehvered her raking fire, he received a 
second grape shot in the right shoulder, which, 
entering below the joint, broke the blade to pie- 
ces, and left a large and dreadful wound. It is 
said that when, towards the close of the action, 
a message was sent down to this heroic officer that 
the day was lost, he caused himself to be carried 
once more on deck, to convince himself that far- 
ther resistance was impossible and w^ould be un- 
avaihng. 

The other British vessels were found to be also 
much cut to pieces, especially the Queen Char- 
lotte, w^hich had lost her brave commander. Cap- 
tain Finnis, very early in the action; her first 
lieutenant had been soon after mortally wounded, 
and the loss of life on board of her was very se- 
vere ; she was also much cut to pieces both in 
hull and spars. The other vessels suffered in like 
proportion ; the Lady Prevost had both her com- 
mander and first lieutenant wounded, and, besides 
other extensive injury, was become unmanageable 
from the loss of her rudder ; Lieutenants Bignal^ 



256 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

commanding the Hunter, and Campbell, the Cliip- 
peway, were also wounded ; thus leaving only the 
commander of the Little Belt fit for duty at the 
close of the action. Indeed, in the official ac- 
count of Commodore Barclay, it is stated that ev- 
ery commander, and every officer second in com- 
mand, was disabled. The total of killed and 
wounded rendered by Commodore Barclay in his 
official report were forty-one Idlled, including three 
officers, and ninety-four wounded, nine of whom 
were officers. The returns, on account of the con- 
dition of the commanders and their seconds in com- 
mand, could not have been very complete, and the 
numbers of killed and wounded are believed to 
have been greater. The killed of the British 
squadron were thrown overboard as they fell, with 
the exception of the officers. 

The feeling which the spectacle of these prizes 
awakened in the minds of the victors had in it as 
much of sorrow as of exultation. The ruined 
and tattered condition of that squadron, w^hich, 
three short hours before, had presented itself in 
such proud array, beginning the action, and hurl- 
ing death and defiance at those who, with inferior 
force, had ventured to brave the power of Eng- 
land ; and, still more, the spectacle of bloodshed 
and agony which they everywhere presented with- 
in, after the excitement of battle was over, could 
not but overwhelm the mind with gloom, and 



OLIVER HAZARP PERRY. 257 

make way once more for the indulgence of those 
humane sympathies which had been smothered in 
the strife of conflict. Nor did our own ships fail 
to exhibit scenes well suited to harrow the feel- 
ings ; the Lawrence especially presented an aw- 
ful spectacle. As has been already stated, twen- 
ty-tw^o of her crew were killed and sixty-one 
wounded, making an aggregate of slaughter which 
is believed never to have been surpassed in any 
modern naval combat, unless where the conquered 
vessel has sunk with her whole crew. The Niag- 
ara lost two killed and twenty-three wounded ; all 
but two of the wounded having been struck after 
Captain Perry took command of her, as stated by 
the surgeon who attended them. Three were 
wounded on board of the Caledonia ; two on 
board the Somers; one killed and three wound- 
ed on board the Ariel ; two killed on board the 
Scorpion ; and two wounded on board the Trippe ; 
making an aggregate in the whole squadron 
of twenty-seven killed and ninety-six wounded. 
Among our killed we had to mourn the loss of 
Lieutenant John Brooks and Midshipman Laub on 
board the Lawrence ; and of Midshipman John 
Clark on board the Scorpion. Lieutenants Yar- 
nall and Forrest, Sailing-master Taylor, Purser 
Hambleton, Midshipmen Swartout and Claxton, 
and Mr. Stone, carpenter, were wounded on board 
the Lawrence, and Lieutenant Edwards and Mid- 
Y2 



258 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

shipman Cummings were wounded on board the 
Niagara. Two of the schooners, the Tigress and 
Porcupine, had no casualties whatever; and, as 
the Trippe and Somers had each but two wound- 
ed, it shows that, notwithstanding the great efforts 
made by their commanders to close up, they were 
unable to take an important part in the battle un- 
til just before the enemy struck. The Trippe, 
though originally the last in the hne, from her 
superior sailing, and the great exertions of her 
commander. Lieutenant Holdup Stevens, was the 
first of the four sternmost vessels to get into close 
action. From the enemy's awaiting the attack 
in a compact line of battle, his vessels were all 
equally available from the first ; and, accordingly, 
the destruction on board of them, from their want 
of bulwarks, was more severe than in his heavy 
vessels. Hence, in addition to the actual inferi- 
ority of our force, the disparity was farther in- 
creased during the action by its being fought by 
the whole of the British force, and only a part of 
ours. 

The splendour of this victory dazzles the ima- 
gination. It was gained by a portion of an infe- 
rior squadron over another every way superior, 
and throughout the action concentrated in its 
force. It was gained, more eminently than any 
other naval victory, by the exertions of one indi- 
vidual, a young man of twenty-seven, who had 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 259 

never beheld a naval engagement. He had dashed 
boldly into action with the Lawrence, counting 
upon the support of those immediately around 
him, and trusting that the rear of his line would 
soon be able to close up to his support. Deserted 
by the Niagara, which was to have, encountered 
the second of the enemy's ships, and sustained only 
by the Caledonia, the Ariel, and the Scorpion, we 
find him resisting for more than two hours the 
whole of the British squadron. Finding, at length, 
his vessel cut to pieces, his guns dismounted, 
means of resistance destroyed, and nearly the whole 
of his brave crew lying dead or wounded around 
him, instead of yielding the day, after having done 
everything that depended upon him to win it, and 
leaving the responsibility of defeat to the com- 
mander of the Niagara, he thought only of using 
the means that remained to him still to secure a 
victory. Passing from the Lawrence under the 
enemy's fire ; saved from death, as if miraculously, 
by the protecting genius of his country, he reached 
the Niagara, and, by an evolution unsurpassed for 
genius and hardihood, bore down upon the enemy, 
and dashed with his fresh and uninjured vessel 
through the enemy's line. It was thus that the 
battle of Erie was won, not merely by the genius 
and inspiration, but eminently by the exertions of 
one man. Nelson was indeed a splendid hero, the 
subject, in no slight degree, of Perry's admiration. 



260 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

But it may with ti-uth be said, that no one of his 
many briUiant victories was opposed by so many 
difficulties, or effected by so many resources of ge- 
nius. They were usually effected by single com- 
bined movements in execution of previously-con- 
certed plans. Nelson would go into action at the 
head of his line, be gallantly supported by his sub- 
ordinate chiefs, and the steady display of British 
courage and superior skill would give him the 
victory. In Perry's victory, the original intention 
of engaging the enemy in line, vessel to vessel, as 
designated in previous orders, had failed, from the 
Niagara keeping back and abstaining from the 
encounter of her proper antagonist, which was 
thus left free to aid in overpowering the Law- 
rence. In suffering destruction, she had fought 
with desperate obstinacy, and dealt many and for- 
midable blows to her numerous assailants. Over- 
come at last and abandoned to her fate. Perry 
made a new arrangement of his remaining re- 
sources, and snatched from the enemy a victory 
which he had already claimed with exulting cheers 
for his own. Nelson had triumphed over French- 
men and Spaniards; Perry was called upon to 
meet the conquerors of these, led, moreover, by 
a veteran formed in the school of Nelson, and 
bearing upon his person the marks of Nelson's 
greatest victory. The battle of Trafalgar was won 
by the whole British fleet over a part of that of 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 261 

the allies ; the battle of Lake Erie was won over 
the whole British squadron by only a part of ours. 
Let us now follow the movements of Perry subse- 
quent to the victory. After the enemy's colours had 
been hauled down, and provision had been made 
for officering and manning the prizes, confining the 
prisoners, securing the wounded masts, stopping 
shot-holes, and the combined squadron had been 
hauled by the wind on the starboard tack, he re- 
tired to the cabin to communicate briefly to Gen- 
eral Harrison intelligence of an event which w^as 
to admit of the immediate advance of his army, 
and rescue our territory from the savage warfare 
which the surrender of Hull's army and subsequent 
disasters had entailed on it. The letter which he 
wrote, though short, was ample, since it expressed 
all that was necessary to be known. 

"Dear General, 
" We have met the enemy, and they are ours. 
Two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one 
sloop. Yours, with very great respect and es- 
teem, 

"0. H. Perry." 

He also wrote the following letter to the secre- 
tary of the navy, which was forwarded, by the 
same express. 



262 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

"U. S. brig Niagara, off the westernmost Sister, 
head of Lake Erie, Sept. 10, 1813., 4 P.M. 

"Sir, 

"It has pleased the Almighty to give to the 
arms of the United States a signal victory over 
their enemies on this lake. The British squadron, 
consisting of two ships, two brigs, one schooner, 
and one sloop, have this moment surrendered to 
the force under my command, after a sharp conflict 

" I have the honour to be, sir, very respectfully, 
your obedient servant, 

" 0. H. Perry." 

Nothing can be more beautifully conspicuous or 
more characteristic than the blended modesty and 
piety of this celebrated letter, written without de- 
liberation, in the moment* of victory, and in the 
midst of abundant occupation. In ascribing the 
victory to the Almighty gift, he was not using a 
simple form of speech, which would appear grace- 
fully and flatter the strongly religious feelings of 
the country, but giving vent to a spontaneous im- 
pulse of his heart. He keeps all allusion to him- 
self out of sight : self is nowhere referred to, ex- 
cept when he unavoidably characterizes the squad- 
ron as being under his command, and the simple 
words " a sharp conflict" alone convey any idea 
of the desperate struggle in which bis own cour- 
age and genius had been so ascendant. 



OLIVFR HAZARD PERRY. 263 

Havmg despatched these letters by express, he 
made signal to anchor, for the greater facility of 
providing for the comfort of the wounded, the se- 
curity of the prisoners, and the general reorgani- 
zation of the squadron. Soon after, he visited the 
Ariel, and despatched Sailing-master Brownell to 
take charge of the Somers, to which he subse- 
quently ordered seventy prisoners to be removed 
from the large vessels. Forty of them were ironed 
or confined below; the remainder were arranged 
within the circle of the long gun, in a sitting pos- 
ture, while the crew remained under arms during 
the night, forming bulwarks across the deck, and 
ready to fire at the least indication of a disposition 
to rise. Having completed some other arrange- 
ments for the safe keeping of the prisoners in oth- 
er vessels. Perry returned to the Lawrence, to be 
again among his brave shipmates, and to do what 
he was able for their succour. It was proper also 
that he should receive in his own ship the surrender 
of the prizes by their commanders, and that the 
brave fellows who had done most to win the victory 
should behold the proud but mournful ceremony 
by which it was completed. From Doctor Par- 
sons, to whom the writer has been indebted for 
valuable aid in every stage of his undertaking, he 
has the following brief yet impressive description 
of Perry's return to the Lawrence : " It was a time 
of conflicting emotions when the commodore re- 



264 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

turned to the ship. The battle was won ; he was 
safe. But the deck was sHppery with blood and 
brains, and strewed with the bodies of twent}^ of- 
ficers and men, some of whom had sat at table 
with us at our last meal, and the ship resounded 
everywhere with the groans of the wounded. 
Those of us who w^ere spared and able to walk, 
approached him as he came over the ship's side, 
but the salutation was a silent one on both sides : 
not a word could find utterance." 

Perry, at the request of his officers, had hither- 
to worn a uniform round jacket ; he now resumed 
his undress uniform, and, standing on the after- 
part of the deck, received the officers of the dif- 
ferent captured vessels as they came to tender the 
surrender of their vessels and their own submis- 
sion as prisoners. At the head of them was an 
officer of the forty-first regiment, who acted as 
marine officer on board the Detroit, and was 
charged by Commodore Barclay with the delivery 
of his sword ; he was in full dress. When they 
had approached, picking their way among the 
wreck and carnage of the deck, they held their 
swords with the hilts towards Perry, and tendered 
them to his acceptance. With a dignified and sol- 
emn air, the most remote possible from any betrayal 
of exultation, and in a low tone of voice, he request- 
ed them to retain their side-arms ; inquired with 
deep concern for Commodore Barclay and the 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 265 

wounded officers, tendering to them every comfort 
his ship afforded, and expressing his regret that he 
had not a spare medical officer to send to them. 

As it was impossible to reserve all the killed of 
the Lawrence for bmial on shore, the seamen were 
buried at nightfall alongside, the able-bodied of 
the crew, so much less numerous than the killed, 
being assembled around to perform the last sad 
offices. The burial-service of the Church of Eng- 
land was read over them by the chaplain, Mr. 
Breese, and they were committed to the deep. 
These painful duties, the eventful occupations of 
the day, the condition of the vessel, and the unin- 
terrupted groans of the wounded and dying, gave 
a melancholy tone to the conversation of the com- 
mander and his few officers assembled together 
on the quarter-deck. To be among the very few 
spared from death and mutilation, the chances of 
which he had encountered on that day in so many 
ways, called for no little gratitude from Perry. 
His little brother, only twelve years old, though 
he had received several musket-balls through his 
dress, had met with no injury, and was now do- 
smg in his hammock. An allusion to these facts 
awakened the same sense of a controlling Provi- 
dence, which, in beginning his report, had led him 
to ascribe the victory to the pleasure of the Al- 
mighty. "I believe," he said, "that my wife's 
prayers have saved me." 
Z 



AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

Perry now retired to his cot, less, perhaps, to 
sleep than to dwell on the proud yet painful 
events of the day ; to think of that loved one, to 
the interposition of whose prayers he attributed his 
preservation through so many perils, and with 
whom the victory which he had won would admit 
of his speedy reunion, and of the children for 
whom he had that day founded the honourable 
inheritance of an illustrious name. If the fatigues 
and exertions of a day thus spent claimed for him 
the respite of sleep, the toils, the perplexities, the 
heroism of the preceding hours must have min- 
gled with and disturbed his slumbers, and made 
him live over again the anxieties of that desperate 
struo^ocle. 

On the following morning the commodore re- 
moved to the Ariel, having determined, as the 
Lawrence was completely disabled for all farther 
service, to make her an hospital ship, and despatch 
her with our wounded to Erie. His extreme soli- 
citude, however, brought him back to the Law- 
rence in the course of the day to inquire into the 
condition of his wounded shipmates, and encour- 
age them under the operations which many of 
them were obliged to undergo. Dr. Parsons, as- 
sistant-surgeon of the Lawrence, was the only sur- 
gical officer of the three belonging to the vessels 
who was in a condition to perform duty in a squad- 
ron having ninety-six wounded, and a still greater 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 267 

number ill with fevers and dysentery. His pres- 
ence on board of the Lawrence, where most of the 
womids had occurred, was a fortunate circum- 
stance. He had removed a few limbs nearly sev- 
ered by cannon balls during the action, and con- 
fined his attention to the sufficiently-engrossing 
task of securing bleeding arteries. During the 
night of the tenth his attention was almost con- 
stantly required in administering opiates and cor- 
dials, and arresting renewed bleeding among the 
wounded. At daylight on the following morning 
he had his first patient on the table for amputa- 
tion, and by eleven o'clock had completed all the 
amputations. It is mentioned by this gentleman 
that the greatest impatieiMJe existed among this 
class of wounded to meet the operation, and the 
only way of satisfying the candidates for the loss 
of an arm or a leg was to take them in the order 
in which they had been wounded. At ten o'clock 
in the evening a few of the more slightly wounded 
still remained unattended to, when the surgeon 
was obliged to desist, from inability longer to sus- 
tain himself in a stooping position, and from mere 
physical exhaustion. The remaining wounded of 
the Lawrence, with the wounded of the rest of 
the squadron, were only seen on the following 
day. It is conclusive as to the rare skill of Doc- 
tor Parsons, and his humane attentions to the 
wounded, that out of the whole ninety-six, only 



268 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

three died ; one of these was midshipman Thomas 
Claxton, a young officer of merit and great prom- 
ise. This extraordinary success must have been 
chiefly owing to the skill and watchful attention 
of the young surgeon, though he modestly attrib- 
utes it to " their being abundantly supplied with 
fresh provisions, to a pure atmosphere under an 
awning upon deck, to the cheerful state of mind 
occasioned by victory, and to the devoted atten- 
tion of the commodore to every want." 

In the course of this day Perry visited Commo- 
dore Barclay on board of the Detroit, and from 
that visit, so tragically ushered in, began a warm 
and enduring friendship. Every comfort that Per- 
ry could procure for his wounded prisoner was 
freely placed at his disposal. He became respon- 
sible for a considerable sum of money required by 
Barclay for his own use and that of his officers ; 
and, at Barclay's request, also advanced money to 
the army officers employed in his squadron. Some 
difficulties had occurred at that period with regard 
to the treatment of prisoners between the two na- 
tions, owing to some alleged cruelties against our 
captured countrymen. Still, in order to relieve 
the mind of Barclay while suffering from his 
wounds, and under a conviction that nothing but 
a return to his country could restore him, Perry 
pledged himself that he should be paroled ; and 
wrote with such urgency to the secretary of the 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 269 

navy and the commissary of prisoners in Barclay's 
behalf, making his request as a personal favour to 
himself, the only one that he had to ask, that it 
was eventually obtained. 

While Perry was on board the Detroit on his 
visit to Barclay, two strange beings were brought 
to him, who had been found in the depths of the 
hold, where they had remained without food since 
the action. They proved to be Indian chiefs, lu- 
dicrously clad in sailor's clothes, in which they ap- 
peared very ill at their ease. With others of their 
nation, they had been embarked in the British 
squadron to act in the tops as sharp-shooters. These 
savages, who had the reputation of braves in their 
tribe, and who would probably have suffered scalp- 
mg or met death with composure, surrounded with 
every torture that barbarity like their own could 
devise, were completely unnerved, when the battle 
became warm, by the crash and destruction around 
them. Panic-struck by the unaccustomed perils 
to which they were exposed, they fled with pre- 
cipitation to the lowest part of the hold, whence 
they were drawn forth more dead than alive. 
When brought before Perry, they expected no- 
thing short of torture and scalping ; but were no 
less relieved than astonished when, after a few 
good-humoured words, he directed them to be fed 
and made comfortable. Soon after he sent them 
on shore, furnished, at their desire, with a particu- 
Z2 



270 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

lar request to General Harrison that they might 
be carefully protected from our friendly Indians. 

At nine o'clock on the morning of the eleventh, 
the two squadrons weighed anchor and stood to- 
wards Put-in Bay, where they arrived after a sail 
of two hours. The burial of the officers who had 
fallen in battle took place on the morning of the 
twelfth. The day was serene, and the lake un- 
ruffled by a breeze. The boats, with their crews 
neatly dressed, and their colours half-masted, con- 
veyed the bodies to the shore, keeping time, with 
a measured stroke, to the mournful death-dirge. 
The procession formed, as it reached the shore, ac- 
cording to rank, in reversed order. The youngest 
of the killed was borne first, then the lowest in 
rank of the other squadron, and so on alternately, 
an American and a British corpse, the body of 
Captain Finnis coming last. As the corpses 
moved on, the officers fell into procession, two 
Americans and two English, according to rank 
reversed. Perry himself closing the procession. As 
the mournful pageant advanced, keeping time to 
the measured cadence of a dead march from the 
drums and fifes of both squadrons, minute guns, 
fired alternately from each, offered the appropri- 
ate tribute of respect to the remains of the de- 
parted. 

At length the procession reached the spot, near 
the margin of the lake, where the graves had been 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 271 

prepared for the reception of the dead. The fu- 
neral service was read over them, and they were 
lowered into the earth in the order in which they 
had been borne. Volleys of musketry over the 
graves closed the mournful ceremony. The re- 
flections with which a man of eminently humane 
feelings, of serious and contemplative mind like 
Perry, must have gazed upon such a scene, could 
have been of no ordinary character. The same 
expression of melancholy and regret at the loss 
of shipmates and valued friends, pervading alike 
the countenances of the conquerors and the con- 
quered; identity of physiognomy marking them 
for descendants of the same race ; the same lan- 
guage, in its noblest form — the funeral-service of 
the Church of England — sounding in their ears 
with equal familiarity, as if to contradict the en- 
mity which the lifeless bodies at their feet too 
painfully attested. Did his eye wander beyond, 
it took in the peaceful surface of the lake and the 
shattered vessels of either squadron, from which 
came alternately the melancholy boom of the min- 
ute gun. As the young commander returned to 
his boat, exultation, if it found any existence in 
his bosom at such a moment, must have blended 
itself with many contending emotions. 



272 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER IX. 

National Consequences of the Victory. — Official Re- 
port. — Perplexities of Commodore Perry. — Fa- 
vourable Notice of Captain Elliott. — Unfavourahle 
Rumours concerning him. — Perry^s Efforts to sup- 
press them. — Gives him a Certificate. — His Mo- 
tives. — Informs General Brooks of his Stints 
Death. — Preparations for transporting the Army 
to Canada, — Anecdote of Perry^s Benevolence,-— ■ 
Removal of the Army to Put-in Bay ; to Middle 
Sister ; to Malden.-^Ascent of Detroit River. — 
Perry volunteers as Aid to General Harrison. — 
Rapturously received hy the Army. — Exciting Pur- 
suit. — Enemy overtaken. — Battle of the Thames, — 
Charge of mounted Kentuckians. — Death of Te-" 
cumseh. — Capture of the British Army. — Anecdote 
of Perry^s Horsemanship. — Affords Protection to 
the Moravian Missionaries. — Benevolence to Af- 
flicted Woman. — Captain Elliott's Complaints 
against Perry. 

The important consequences of the victory on 
Lake Erie might well justify the pious exclama- 
tion in which Perry announced it to the secretary 
of the navy : " It has pleased the Almighty to 
give to the arms of the United States a signal 
victory over their enemies." While a defeat 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 273 

would have given to the enemy the command of 
all the lakes, by enabUng him to concentrate his 
forces in succession on Lakes Ontario and Cham- 
plain, and thus laid our whole frontier open to his 
incursions, victory, on the contrary, on this lake 
involved remotely the possibility of triumph on all 
the others, while it led immediately to the evacu- 
ation of Detroit, and the release of the whole ter- 
ritory of Michigan from the occupation of the 
British army, and from the horrors of the firebrand 
and scalping-knife which its allies had rendered 
but too familiar there. The heroism of Perry, 
w^hile restoring to us all that Hull's incapacity 
had lost, wiped away the stigma of his inglorious 
surrender, and left a fund of encouragement to 
give impulse to our arms. The blow, followed 
up with vigour, not only facilitated the immediate 
overthrow of the British power in Upper Canada 
and on all the lakes, but left us without limits to 
the extension of our conquests. One of the first 
and most important consequences that must neces- 
sarily follow it was the advancement of General 
Harrison's army into the enemy's territory. In 
order to transport the army to Maiden, where the 
main body of the British army then lay, and which 
it was designed to get possession of before ascend- 
ing the lake towards Detroit, Perry made haste to 
prepare the Niagara, and the light vessels of both 
squadrons, for immediate service ; he removed the 



274 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

whole of our wounded to the Lawrence, and the 
whole of the British wounded to the Detroit and 
the Queen Charlotte. The last two vessels were 
snugly moored in the inner bay for their greater 
security. 

The thirteenth of September was ushered in by 
a violent gale from the southwest, which created 
a heavy sea in the bay. This was too distressing 
to the shattered masts of the Detroit, notwith- 
standing the efforts which had been made to se- 
cure them. They fell with a violent crash on the 
decks, and rendered the wreck and desolation 
complete. The disaster had been foreseen, and 
the prize crew had placed themselves in safety. 
The main and mizzen masts of the Queen Char- 
lotte fell in like manner. 

In the course of this day Perry found leisure to 
draw up and despatch a detailed report of the 
battle to the secretary of the navy, together with 
statements of the relative forces of the two squad- 
rons, and of our killed and wounded. This re- 
port is admirable for the modesty which every- 
where pervaded it, so far as he was himself con- 
cerned ; merely confining himself, with regard to 
his own movements, to a simple relation of the 
most important facts ; and evincing his desire to 
make all under his orders appear advantageously. 
To this desire was owing the notice which he took 
of Captain Elliott, which, without being very eu- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 275 

logistic, was suited, on the whole, to prevent con- 
veying any unfavourable impression of his conduct 
He stated that, " at half past two, the wind spring- 
ing up. Captain Elliott was enabled to bring his 
vessel, the Niagara, gallantly into close action. I 
immediately went on board of her, when he an- 
ticipated my wish by volunteering to bring the 
schooners, which had been kept astern by the 
lightness of the wind, into close action." He 
leaves to Captain Elliott the benefit of the infer- 
ence that, more than two hours after the Lawrence 
had been in close action, he actually did what he 
was enabled to do ; which, by the concurrent tes- 
timony of the officers of the squadron, except a 
few of those of the Niagara, he never did. After 
commending the various officers of the squadron 
who had distinguished themselves, he thus closed 
with a notice of Captain Elliott, of whom he could 
not avoid speaking without necessarily implying 
misconduct. " Of Captain Elliott, already so well 
known to the government, it would be almost su- 
perfluous to speak ; in this action he evinced his 
characteristic bravery and judgment ; and, since 
the close of the action, has given me the most able 
and essential assistance." This report was seen 
by Captain Elliott, to whom, as second in com- 
mand, this courtesy might, under ordinary circum- 
stances, be considered due. When he had read 
it, Perry askp*^ him if it was a correct statement ; 



276 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

Captain Elliott assented ; but, after a little time 
and a reperusal, he did not like the manner in 
which Perry spoke of the Niagara, and asked him 
if he could not alter it. Perry said he would take 
time to reflect, and, if he could alter it with pro- 
priety, he would do so. Failing in obtaining more 
favourable mention of himself — for Perry was con- 
vinced, upon reflection, that he had already said too 
much for him — Captain Elliott procured some al- 
terations to be made in the report relating to oth- 
ers. At his suggestion, some laudatory remarks 
were inserted as to the conduct of Acting-mas- 
ter Nelson Webster ; and, in consequence of his 
attributing misconduct to the commanders of the 
small vessels which he had gone to the rear 
of the line to bring up. Perry omitted all men- 
tion of their commanders. This omission he sub- 
sequently regretted, as he was afterward led to 
believe that they had failed in no exertion to close 
up, especially Lieutenant Holdup Stevens, the 
commander of the Trippe, who, as he ascertained 
from Lieutenant Turner and others, had brought his 
vessel into action with special gallantry. This 
omission gave great pain to the relations of Mr. 
Stevens, and produced anxious letters from them 
to Captain Perry, which he was happy in being 
able to answer most satisfactorily by placing Lieu- 
tenant Stevens in a true and meritorious light. 
C-aptain Elliott's attempt thus to destroy Lieu- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 277 

tenant Stevens can only be accounted for by an 
inveterate dislike, and appears to be in some way 
connected with the removal of this officer a few 
days before from the Niagara, of which he was 
previously first lieutenant. Of the conduct du- 
ring the action of this gentleman's successor, Lieu- 
tenant J. E. Smith, who had exchanged with Mr 
Stevens, Captain Elliott also spoke to Captain 
Perry in the most disparaging terms ; but the lat- 
ter, having observed that Mr. Smith did his duty 
while the Niagara was in a far more critical posi- 
tion than during the time of Captain Elliott's be- 
ing on board of her, noticed his conduct with ap- 
probation.* It thus appears, that while Perry was 
torturing his ingenuity to keep honestly out of 
view the palpable misconduct of Captain Elliott, 

* Yet Captain Elliott subsequently procured from this offi- 
cer, whom he had thus endeavoured to destroy, a commenda- 
tory certificate, and made him instrumental in publishing it. 
To the remark of Mr. Cooper, *' It is now believed that the 
omission of the names of the commanders of the gun vessels 
astern was accidental," Mr. Hambleton appends the following 
note : " It was not. They were omitted in consequence of the 
unfavourable report of Captain Elliott, who said they were not 
making the best of their way up." The name of Mr. Hamble- 
ton, whose conduct throughout the battle was so gallant and 
meritorious, is omitted by Mr. Cooper among the list of wound- 
ed officers. 

Aa 



278 AMERICAN BIOGEAPHY. 

he, on the contrary, was endeavouring to ruin his 
inferiors. 

As the happiness of Captain Perry was after- 
ward imbittered by the annoyances which grew 
out of a controversy forced upon him by Captain 
ElHott, as to his share in this victory, and as una- 
voidable notice must be taken of it hereafter, it is 
necessary to trace the origin of the difficulty. Cap- 
tain Elliott appears to have arrived on Lake Erie 
with a feeling of jealousy towards Captain Perry, 
an exaggerated idea of the distinction conferred 
upon him by the capture of the Detroit and Cale- 
donia, and a feeling that injustice had been done 
to him in not conferring on him the chief com- 
mand of the squadron on Lake Erie. While, 
therefore, Perry was happy to receive an officer of 
greater experience than those who had hitherto 
been sent to him, and was disposed to welcome 
him cordially, Captain Elliott, on the contrary, 
joined the command with a feeling of jealousy to- 
wards his superior, and a disposition to be insubor- 
dinate. Very soon after he joined the squadron, 
he had a difficulty with a commander of one of 
the smaller vessels about receiving a seaman, which 
that officer scrupled to deliver without a written 
order, when, instead of reporting the circumstan- 
ces as they had occurred to their commander, he 
thus dictatorially addressed him. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 279 

U. S. brig Niagara, August 19, 1813. 

"Sir, 
" I hereby require of you the arrest of Sailing- 
master Thomas C. Almy, who has committed a 
breach of the first clause of the fourteenth article 
for the better government of the Navy of the Uni- 
ted States. 

" Respectfully, I have the honour to be, 
" Jesse D. Elliott, Lieut. 

" Captain 0. H. Perry." 

Captain Perry seems to have taken no offence 
at this insubordinate and disrespectful requisition, 
by which his inferior undertook to deprive him of 
the power of exercising any judgment as to ques- 
tions of discipline arising among his officers, and 
to decide at once as to an alleged offence and the 
degree of punishment to be awarded to it. He so 
far yielded, however, to Captain Elliott's demand, 
as to arrest the officer in question ; he subsequently 
adjusted the difficulty, and took measures, by the 
issue of a general order, to prevent its recurrence. 
His conduct in this and in other matters evin- 
ced towards Captain Elliott a spirit of forbearance 
and conciliation. This spirit, added to an eminent- 
ly humane and generous feeHng, continued to an- 
imate him towards this officer in the very peculiar 
situation in which he found himself after the battle. 

During the battle, and immediately after it, the 



280 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

extraordinary conduct of Captain Elliott, in failing 
to follow his chief into close action, to seek out 
his designated opponent, and to reheve the Law- 
rence from her unequal contest with the whole 
British squadron, had been the subject of univer- 
sal remark, and of the severest animadversion. 
The opinion was general in the squadron that Cap- 
tain Elliott had either been actuated by cowardice, 
or by a treacherous desire to see the Lawrence 
overpowered and her commander slain, that he 
might take his station, and, by winning the victo- 
ry, become the hero of the day.* As, however, 
the chances of victory were almost annihilated by 
the destruction of the Lawrence, the last supposi- 
tion met with little belief. These reports were 
not unknown to Captain Perry, though he discour- 
aged their circulation. He had been perplexed 
during the action by the unaccountable manoeuvres 
of the Niagara, when he observed them himself, 
or when his attention was called to them by oth- 
ers ; but he was unwilling to believe in the exist- 
ence of such motives as were generally ascribed 
to Captain Elliott. He felt a generous indisposi- 
tion to permit the fall of a young officer, then 
high in the public favour, whom he had the 
power of saving ; and, even putting the worst 
construction on the conduct of Captain Elliott, he 
was unwilling that the enemy should know that 

* See affidavits at the end of the work. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 281 

the second in command in our squadron had fail- 
ed in his duty. In expressing his doubts on this 
subject to his intimate friend, Mr. Hambleton, 
while in the act of drawing up his report, he quo- 
ted to him, with approbation, the declaration of an 
English admiral, " It is better to screen a cow- 
ard than to let the enemy know there is one in the 
fleet." 

Influenced by this motive of national and profes- 
sional pride, and the generous and humane desire of 
saving a young officer from irretrievable ruin and 
disgrace, Perry noticed the conduct of Elliott not 
only without reprobation, but in the qualified terms 
of praise that we have quoted. The difficulty and 
doubt under which he laboured are evident on a 
careful perusal of his report. Nor was this all that 
he did : through Lieutenant Turner and Mr. Ham- 
bleton he intimated his desire to the officers of his 
own ship, and of the squadron generally, that they 
should abstain, both in their letters and in conver- 
sation, from all remarks on the conduct of Captain 
Elliott. He said, that whatever might have been 
the appearances during the action, he was unwill- 
ing, after its happy result, to ruin an officer of rank 
and favourable standing. The American flag, he 
remarked, had gained honour enough on that day 
to permit its being shared by all who had served 
under it. In consequence of this statement of the 
wishes of their beloved commander, the officers 
Aa2 



282 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

suppressed the letters which they had written to 
their friends, describing the battle and stigmatizing 
the conduct of Captain Elhott. Hearing, more- 
over, subsequently, that reports of his having failed 
to do his duty prevailed throughout General Harri- 
son's army, Perry spoke to Lieutenant Turner on 
the subject, expressing the regret which these re- 
ports caused him, and his desire that they might be 
silenced. He requested Lieutenant Turner to visit 
the camp, and do all that he could with propriety 
to counteract them. Sharing the noble generosity 
of his commander, Mr. Turner complied with this 
request on the following morning. Such were the 
magnanimous motives which led Perry, after a 
long mental conflict between justice on the one 
side, and humane feelings and patriotic pride on 
the other, to convey, in his official report, a fa- 
vourable impression of Captain Elliott's conduct 
during the battle, and otherwise to exert himself, 
with benevolent solicitude, to screen him from ex- 
posure and reprobation. 

Captain Elliott was necessarily not long in dis- 
covering the unfavourable impression made by his 
conduct during the battle. He had taken to his 
bed less from sickness than chagrin, as stated by 
the surgeon, Dr. Parsons, who was obliged to 
abandon the urgent claims of the wounded to 
visit Captain Elliott, and who had not yet been 
able to attend to one of the really sick. On this 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 283 

occasion Captain Elliott spoke disparagingly to 
Dr. Parsons of his own surgeon, Dr. Barton j said 
he was good for nothing ; that he had attempted to 
amputate an arm during the battle, but the man 
died before it closed. Dr. Parsons told him that 
Dr. Barton was sick, but would soon be better, and 
able to discharge his duty faithfully.* 

Perry soon after visited Captain Elliott, and 
found him in this condition, and was moved by his 
declaration that he had lost the fairest opportunity 
of distinguishing himself that man ever had, to 
make every effort to relieve him.f When, there- 
fore, he soon after received from Captain Elliott a 
request that he would state what had been his 
conduct during the battle, influenced by the same 
generous motives, he replied to him in terms of ap- 
probation, which he subsequently lived to repent. 
Captain Elliott's letter was in the following words, 
copied from the original in the writer's possession. 

"U. S. ship Niagara, Sept. 19, 1813. 

"Dear Sir, 
"My brother, who has this evening arrived 
from the interior of the country, has mentioned to 
me a report that appeared to be in general circula- 
tion, that, in the late action with the British fleet, 

* Captain Elliott subsequently procured from this gentleman 
a favourable certificate. 

t See, in the sequel, Perry's letter of the 18th June, 1818. 



■184 AMEPwICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

my vessel betrayed a want of conduct in bringing 
into action, and that your vessel was sacrificed in 
consequence of a want of exertion on my part in- 
dividually. I will thank you if immediately you 
will, with candour, name to me my exertions, and 
that of my officers and crew. 

" Yours respectfully, 

" Jesse D. Elliott.* 
" An immediate answer is desired. 

" Captain O. H. Perry, Eriel." 

* In reference to this letter, Captain Perry, long after, wrote 
Captain Elliott : 

" Your letter to me, of which you once furnished a false copy 
for publication, and which you now represent as making a de- 
mand upon me, was merely an introduction to mine," 

That the reader may discover the truth of the charge, the let- 
ter subsequently published by Captain Elliott at Erie, and quite 
recently reproduced in his autobiography, if that title can be 
given to a work written under his auspices and containing his 
opinions, is subjoined. 
"Sir, 

" I am informed a report has been circulated by some mali- 
cious persons, prejudicial to my vessel when engaged with the 
enemy's fleet. I will thank you if you will, with candour, state 
to me the conduct of myself, officers, and crew. 

"Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"Jesse D. Elliott. 
•' Captain Perry." 

On a comparison of the real, original letter written by Captain 

Elliott, as given in the text, with this letter, published in the 

Erie Sentinel a month and a half afterward, and reproduced in 

the Life of Commodore Elliott, the reader will perceive that the 

whole tone of the letter is changed, from an urgent friendly ap- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 285 

Captain Elliott's letter was probably dated on 
the eighteenth, which is endorsed on the back of it, 
instead of the nineteenth ; the date is indistinctly 
written, and appears to have been altered from the 
seventeenth to the nineteenth. Captain Perry's 
reply was as follows. 

"U. S. schooner Ariel, Put-in Bay, Sept. 19, 1813. 

"Dear Sir, 
" I received your note last evening after I had 

peal to a peremptory demand. The "Dear Sir" is reduced to 
plain " Sir ;" and, to make the contrast stronger, Commodore Per- 
ry is made to begin with a " My dear Sir," instead of with the same 
conventional expression of friendly intercourse used by Captain 
Elliott. The effect of these changes is to give an exacting tone to 
the letter of Captain Elliott, and a decidedly deprecating one to 
that of Commodore Perry. The letter, which was the offspring of 
an ill-judged and ill-requited benevolence, is made to assume the 
guise of an extorted concession. Some other alterations were also 
made in Commodore Perry's letter, to give greater force to his ex- 
pressions, but of little importance when compared with those 
made in Captain Elliott's own prefatory note. It was desirable to 
keep out of view the important fact that reports unfavourable to 
the conduct of Captain Elliott in the battle of the tenth of Septem- 
ber were already in extensive circulation ; hence the motive for 
changing the introduction of the letter, from " My brother, who 
has this eveninig arrived from the interior of the country, has 
mentioned to me a report that appeared to be in general circu- 
lation," to " I am informed a report has been circulated by some 
malicious persons." This substantiation of the charge against 
Captain Elliott of furnishing " a false copy for publication" of an 
important letter, will simplify the afler discussion of the difficul- 
ties between these two officers, and assist the reader in the in- 
telligence of their respective claims to honourable consideration. 



'286 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

turned in, or I should have answered it immedi- 
ately. I am indignant that any report should be 
in circulation prejudicial to your character, as re- 
spects the action of the tenth instant. It affords 
me pleasure that I have it in my power to assure 
you, that the conduct of yourself, officers, and crew 
was such as to meet my warmest approbation. 
And I consider the circumstance of your volunteer- 
ing and bringing the smaller vessels to close action 
as contributing largely to our victory. I shall 
ever believe it a premeditated plan of the enemy 
to disable our commanding vessel, by bringing all 
their force to bear upon her ; and I am satisfied, 
had they not pursued this course, the engagement 
would not have lasted thirty minutes. I have no 
doubt, if the Charlotte had not made sail and 
engaged the Lawrence, the Niagara would have 
taken her in twenty minutes. 

"Respectfully, &c., 

«0. H. Perry. 

" Captain Jesse D. Elliott, U. S. ship Niagara." 

The motives which prompted Perry to write 
this letter were the same that influenced him in 
making out his official report, and in requesting 
his officers to abstain, in their letters and in con- 
versation, from writing or saying anything to the 
disadvantage of Captain Elliott. That Perry made 
a great mistake in writing this letter, and even 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 287 

committed a great fault, cannot be denied. Hav- 
ing, however, gone so far in his official report, it 
was natural that he should go on, thouo-h the 
w^armth of his expressions must be condemned. 
Before the days of Rodney and Nelson, miscon- 
duct, growing chiefly, perhaps, out of defective 
tactics, was far from uncommon in the British 
navy ; yet the circumstance of Admiral Hawke 
having, in his official report, boldly accused one 
of his captains of neglect of duty in the general 
engagement with the French fleet under M. de 
I'Etendiere in 1747, is mentioned by naval histo- 
rians as distinguishing that report from almost 
every other on similar occasions. It is due to Per- 
ry, that what he himself said to his most intimate 
friend, Mr. Hambleton, in palliation of his mistake, 
when the person for whose benefit it had been 
committed had given him cause for repentance, 
should be placed before the reader. " It was a 
matter of great doubt, when I began to reflect 
upon Captain Elliott's conduct, to what to attrib- 
ute his keeping so long out of the action. It was 
difficult to believe that a man, who, as I then 
thought, had, in a former instance, behaved brave- 
ly, could act otherwise in a subsequent action. I 
did not then know enough of human nature to be- 
lieve that any one could be so base as to be guilty 
of the motive which some ascribed to him, name- 



288 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHl. 

ly, a determination to sacrifice me by keeping his 
vessel out of action. 

" On the evening of the action I was elated 
with our success, which had relieved me from a 
load of responsibility, and from a situation, stand- 
ing as I did with the government, almost desper- 
ate. At such a moment there was not a person 
in the world whose feelings I would have hurt. 
On showing Captain Elliott the rough draught of 
my official letter, when I asked him if it was a 
correct statement, he assented ; but, after a Uttle 
time, did not like the manner in which I spoke of 
the Niagara, and asked me if I could not alter it. 
I told him I thought not, but would take time to 
reflect, and, if I could with propriety, would do so. 
Upon reflection, I was sensible I had already said 
and done too much. Subsequently I became in- 
volved in his snares ; and, on his writing me a note, 
of which he has published only a part, I was silly 
enough to write him in reply the foolish letter of 
the nineteenth of September, because I thought it 
necessary to persevere in endeavouring to save 
him. This undoubtedly reflects on my head, but 
surely not on my heart. I was wilUng enough to 
share with him and others the fame I had ac- 
quired. Although, my friend, I never have arro- 
gated to myself superior judgment — on the con- 
trary, am aware of my weakness in being very 
credulous — ^yet I was certainly as capable of deci- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 289 

ding, after reflection, on events that occurred under 
my own eyes as any other in the squadron, and 
the opinions of others had nothing to do with 
mine as respects Captain ElHott. Although my 
want of judgment may cause regret to my friends, 
yet no one can reflect on the goodness of my heart 
and the correctness of my principles." 

On the same day that Perry wrote his unfortu- 
nate letter in behalf of Captain Elliott, the Law- 
rence weighed anchor for Erie with the sick and 
wounded of the American squadron. Captain 
Perry went on board of her as she was sailing out 
of the harbour, to take leave of his brave ship- 
mates, and to see if anything farther could be 
done for their comfort. He had already taken 
every possible pains to procure whatever refresh- 
ments the neighbourhood of Sandusky afforded 
for his own and the British w^ounded, and placed 
his own private stores at the disposal of the sur- 
geon of the Lawrence, by whom they were freely 
used. Before leaving the Lawrence, Perry, true 
to his generous w^ish to save the reputation of Cap- 
tain Elliott, requested Mr. Hambleton to desire 
the wounded officers, on their landing, to avoid 
any remarks or conversation with regard to the 
misconduct of the Niagara while under the com- 
mand of Captain Elliott, and asked him particu- 
larly to caution Lieutenant Forrest, who was to 
proceed to Washington on the proud errand of de- 
Bb 



290 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

livering the captured colours of the enemy, to ab- 
stain from any discussion of the subject. 

The generous effort made by Perry to exhibit 
the conduct of Captain Elliott in a light not ob- 
viously unfavourable in his official report ; the let- 
ter which, in the same spirit, he wrote at Captain 
Elliott's request, to relieve the anxiety and distress 
of mind under which he was suffering, and his 
earnest efforts to influence the officers under his 
command in behalf of Captain Elliott's reputa- 
tion, would doubtless have attained their object, 
and left that gentleman in possession of an envia- 
ble reputation, had he been satisfied to allow the 
whole matter to remain in the position in which 
it was thus left ; but the efforts which should have 
awakened the keenest sense of gratitude on the 
part of Captain Elliott, in the language of an ac- 
curate observer, " appear to have planted in his 
bosom the most implacable hatred." It will be 
seen, in the sequel, that this was not long in exhib- 
iting itself. 

Before resuming the course of our narrative, we 
will here refer to another matter of a painful na- 
ture, though connected with an exhibition of feel- 
ings suited to awaken admiration instead of dis- 
gust. By the Lawrence Captain Perry forwarded 
to General Brooks, of Medford, Massachusetts, 
the following feeling announcement of the death 
of his noble son: 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 291 

" It is with heartfelt pain I am under the neces- 
sity of communicating to you the irreparable loss 
which you and our country have sustained in the 
death of your gallant and worthy son, Lieutenant 
John Brooks, who fell in the action with the Brit- 
ish squadron at the head of Lake Erie, on the tenth 
instant, while nobly animating his men to their 
duty. His friend, Mr. Hambleton, who is severely 
wounded, will write you the moment he is able. 
I sympathize with you most deeply." 

Ere this letter could reach the bereaved parent, 
he had addressed Perry on the same subject. It is 
a characteristic specimen of the noble patriotism 
which animated those who won our independence 
with their blood ; of a devotion, wiUing not mere- 
ly to sacrifice life in our country's cause, but to 
acquiesce, with at least outward cheerfulness, in 
the sacrifice of the life of a son. The veteran's 
letter ran as follows : 

" After oflfering you my most cordial congrat- 
ulations on your late splendid victory over a su- 
perior British force, which must rank your name 
high on the roll of naval conquerors, permit me 
to mention my son. Lieutenant Brooks, who fell 
on board the Lawrence during that memorable 
conflict. Not being acquainted with any indi- 
vidual in your fleet to whom I could apply for 



292 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

information respecting my son, I have taken the 
liberty of addressing myself for that purpose to 
you. Should you have a few moments at your 
command, it would be laying me under lasting 
obligation to inform me of the most prominent 
circumstances as to the time and manner of 
his fall. It would be also gratifying to me to 
know what disposition has been made of his ef- 
fects, and whether his arms of different kinds have 
been disposed of or are retained. If the latter, it 
would be peculiarly grateful to me to be in pos- 
session of his best sword and sash ; the former as 
a relic, the latter on account of its being the sash 
I wore through the whole of the American Revo- 
lution. If compliance with this request should be 
proper and practicable, perhaps a safe conveyance 
to Boston may offer ; otherwise I have to request 
they may be forwarded to my son, Alexander S. 
Brooks, who is a captain in the Third Regiment 
of Artillery, and is now stationed at Fort George. 
" The citizens of Boston are taking measures to 
evince, in some measure, the sense they entertain 
of your distinguished merit ; and, should you visit 
our capital, no one will greet you with more cor- 
diality than, sir, your most obedient servant, 

" John Brooks." 

In this touching letter, worthy of the best days 
of the republic, the grief of a father for the loss of 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 293 

a favourite son, who was the admired and beloved 
of all beholders, gives way to the pride and exul- 
tation of the patriot. That other son of whom he 
speaks has since been numbered among the vic- 
tims of the Florida war. 

Captain Perry had lost no time in organizing 
the vessels of both squadrons still fit for active 
service for the transportation of the army under 
General Harrison to the opposite shore. On the 
fifteenth and sixteenth of September he had land- 
ed all his prisoners, with the exception of the sick 
and wounded, at Camp Portage, at the outlet of 
the river of that name in Sandusky Bay, whence 
they were to be marched to ChiUcothe. A list of 
these prisoners by name, to the number of three 
hundred and eight, is in possession of the writer. 

Having thus disposed of the sound portion of 
his prisoners, and hastily reorganized his combined 
squadron. Captain Perry placed the small vessels 
at the disposal of General Harrison, for the re- 
moval of his army from Portage River and Fort 
Meigs to Bass Island, preparatory to a descent upon 
Canada. He proceeded in person in the Ariel to 
Portage River, to receive General Harrison with 
his staff, and convey him to Put-in Bay. A little 
incident which occurred on this passage, illustra- 
tive of the amiable feelings of Perry, and of his 
generous sympathy with the sick or suffering, is 
related by Major Chambers, of Kentucky, then 
Bb2 



294 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

one of General Harrison's aiddecamps. About 
twenty or thirty soldiers, composing the remnant 
of a gallant company of young Virginians, who 
had joined the army the year before under the 
name of the Petersburg Volunteers, and who had 
been reduced by battle and disease to their pres- 
ent number, had accompanied General Harrison 
on board the Ariel. 

On the passage to Put-in Bay, supper was served 
in the cabin, and, after the commodore and his 
numerous guests had partaken of it, they resumed 
their seats on deck to enjoy the evening air. 
Major Chambers was conversing with Lieutenant 
Packett, who commanded the Ariel, when one of 
the young Virginians, whom a spirit of adventure 
had led to abandon a life of ease for the hard- 
ships of the camp, and who was just recovering 
from severe illness, approached Major Chambers, 
whom he knew, and asked, in an under tone, if it 
would be possible for him to obtain a cup of coffee 
from the cabin, saying that his stomach rejected 
the cold and coarse food to which the army had 
necessarily been confined. Being a stranger to 
Perry, Major Chambers felt reluctant to trouble 
him with such a request, and therefore explained 
it to Mr. Packett. He hesitated to say anything, 
and the subject was dropped. But Perry, who 
■was sitting near, had overheard the remark, and 
quietly given directions to his steward. In half 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 295 

an hour Major Chambers had the gratification of 
seeing the whole of the young Virginians seated 
round an excellent supper in the cabin, and the 
warm-hearted host attending to them in person. 
Perry had heard the character and gallantry of the 
little band assigned as the reason for taking them 
on board the Ariel, that they might be under the 
eye of the general, and kindly rebuked Major 
Chambers for having hesitated to explain what 
accident alone had revealed to him — the longing 
of these poor fellows for a cup of hot coffee. 

"This little incident," says Major Chambers, 
" indicated to my satisfaction the character of the 
man, and would alone have made a lasting im- 
pression ; but it was not permitted to stand alone 
in the catalogue of proofs that he was as gener- 
ous and kind as he was brave. I visited the cabin 
of the Detroit in his company, and witnessed the 
kindness of his manner and his generous solicitude 
for the comfort of his wounded prisoner, the gal- 
lant Captain Barclay. I subsequently accompa- 
nied him on board of the Lawrence, on the morn- 
ing she sailed with the wounded seamen for Erie 5 
and I was inexpressibly gratified with the feeling 
he manifested towards the poor fellows, the anxi- 
ety he showed for their comfort, and the evident 
pleasure they derived from his attention to them. 
Mcmy, very many little incidents occurred in the 
course of our brief intercourse to prove that my 



296 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

first impressions of his character were well-found- 
ed j his uniform kindness and sympathy towards 
every sufferer from disease, disaster, or other caus- 
es daily occurring in the army, was remarked by 
all who had the happiness of associating with 
him." 

The army, amounting to four thousand five 
hundred men, was at length assembled at Bass 
Island, on the evening of the twenty-second. 
The size of the vessels prevented the embarcation 
of all the troops at once. In consequence. Cap- 
tain Perry had suggested to General Harrison, be- 
fore the battle with the British squadron — for a de- 
scent upon Canada had already been determined 
on, to take place so soon as Governor Shelby 
should arrive with the mass of the Kentucky mili- 
tia — to rendezvous with the troops at the Middle 
Sister, an island distant twelve miles from Mai- 
den, and then take advantage of favourable 
weather to move the whole army simultaneously 
by means of the squadron and boats. This meas- 
ure was now adopted ; and, on the twenty-third, 
the operation of transporting the army to the Mid- 
dle Sister was commenced, and, notwithstanding 
interruptions from bad weather, was successfully 
completed on the twenty-sixth. On that day, 
Captain Perry, accompanied by General Harrison, 
who had his headquarters on board the Ariel, re- 
connoitred the harbour of Maiden and the adja- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 297- 

cent shores. As the result of their investigation, 
the general fixed upon a point about three miles 
to the eastward of the town of Maiden, or Am- 
herstburg, as it is called by the English. The 
next day being appointed for landing, should the 
weather continue favourable, the general orders 
of debarcation, of march, and of battle were im- 
mediately drawn up under the direction of the 
general, signed by Colonel E. P. Gaines, the adju- 
tant-general, on board the Ariel, and made known 
to the army on her return to the Middle Sister, to- 
gether with the following brief words of encour- 
agement and humane caution. " The general en- 
treats his brave troops to remember that they are 
the sons of sires whose fame is immortal ; that 
they are to fight for the rights of their insulted 
country, while their opponents combat for the un- 
just pretensions of a master. Kentuckians ! re- 
member the River Raisin ! but remember it only 
while the victory is suspended. The revenge of 
a soldier cannot be gratified upon a fallen enemy !" 
At three o'clock on the morning of the twenty- 
seventh, the weather proving mild, the army was 
all embarked into the boats or taken on board the 
squadron. This service being effected at nine 
o'clock, the squadron weighed, and stood towards 
the designated point of debarcation. At two 
o'clock the vessels anchored in line of battle, 
about a mile and a half to the eastward of Bar 



298 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

Point, and at the distance of a quarter of a mile 
from the shore, with springs on their cables, in 
readiness to cover the debarcation of the troops. 
At forty-five minutes after two, all that could be 
contained in the boats were landed on the beach 
simultaneously, and in admirable order. There 
was no enemy to oppose them. Information was 
soon obtained, and communicated to Captain Per- 
ry, that the enemy had evacuated Maiden, and re- 
tired in the direction of Sandwich, up the left 
bank of the Detroit. The squadron immediately 
weighed, stood into the harbour, and anchored 
off the town, where the rest of the troops were 
landed at five o'clock, soon after the main body 
had marched in. On taking possession of the 
town, it was discovered that the enemy had de- 
stroyed the fort, barracks, navy yard, and pubhc 
stores. 

The evacuation of Amherstburg by General 
Proctor may have been rendered inevitable by the 
want of provisions to stand a siege. He had at 
his disposal three thousand Indians, which, with 
seven hundred regular troops and the mihtia of 
the district, made him nearly equal in numbers to 
our army. He had, moreover, the advantage of 
position. The Indians were exceedingly anxious 
to fight, and two thirds of them abandoned his 
army when he commenced his retreat. The brave 
and eloquent Tecumseh, with about a thousand 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 299 



followers, though strongly opposed to retreating, 
the impolicy and disgrace of which he powerfully 
set forth, still remained. In the harangue in 
which he attempted to dissuade the British gener- 
al from his inglorious, and, as it proved, disastrous 
determination, he certainly took some very extra- 
ordinary and undutiful liberties. "Listen, Fa- 
ther !" said he ; " opr fleet has gone out. We 
know they have fought ; w^e have heard the great 
guns, but know nothing of what has happened to 
our Father with one arm. Our fleet has gone one 
way, and we are very much astonished to see our 
Father tying up everything, and preparing to run 
away the other, without letting his red children 
know what his intentions are. You always told 
us that you would never draw your foot oflf British 
ground ; but now. Father, we see that yau are 
drawing back, and we are sorry to see our Father 
doing so without seeing the enemy. We must com- 
pare our Father's conduct to a fat animal that car- 
ries its tail upon its back, but, when affrighted, 
it drops it between its legs and runs otf. We 
wish to remain here and fight the enemy, should 
he appear. If he conquers us, we will then re- 
treat with our Father." 

No time was lost in following the retreating 
enemy. Our army marched up the left bank of 
the Detroit, while the squadron sailed up the river, 
transporting the heavy baggage and provisions of 



300 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

the troops. The army took possession of Sand- 
wich on the twenty-ninth. Here General Harri- 
son learned from deserters that the British army, 
consisting of seven hundred regular troops and a 
thousand Indians, had taken post on the right 
bank of the river Thames, at Dalson's, about fif- 
ty-six miles from Sandwich. It was stated that 
General Proctor intended to fortify himself in that 
position, and await an attack. If defeated, he 
could continue his retreat up the banks of the 
Thames, in the direction of Lake Ontario, near 
which it has its source. At Sandwich, deputa- 
tions were received from the Ottawas, Chippe- 
ways, Wyandots, Miamis, and a band of hostile 
Delawares, all of which had abandoned the ene- 
my's army, and now offered to make peace and 
co-operate against their former friends. 

On the same day General Harrison embarked 
with General M' Arthur's brigade, seven hundred 
strong, in the squadron, and proceeded with Cap- 
tain Perry to take possession of Detroit. There 
were about a thousand Indians lurking in the 
neighbourhood of the town, but they fled with- 
out resistance on the approach of the squadron. 
Soon after, they gave in their submission to Gen- 
eral M^ Arthur, and agreed to " take hold of the 
same tomahawk, and strike all who were the ene- 
mies of the United States, whether British or In- 
dians." General Harrison now issued a procla- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 301 

mation, announcing the expulsion of the enemy 
from ]\Iichigan, and re-establishing the civil gov- 
ernment as it existed before the subjugation of the 
territory. This being completed, he returned to 
Sandwich in the Ariel. In the mean time, the 
mounted Kentuckians of Colonel Johnson's regi- 
ment had reached Detroit and crossed to Sand- 
wich, and, ^^^th them, the horses belonging to the 
staff and field officers of the army. 

On the thirtieth of September, having received 
information that some small vessels of the enemy 
were escaping up Lake St. Clair, towards the 
Thames, with the baggage and artillery of Proc- 
tor's army. Captain Perry despatched Captain El- 
liott with the Niagara, Lady Prevost, now com- 
manded by Lieutenant Turner, Scorpion, and Ti- 
gress up the Detroit into Lake St. Clair, to pur^e 
them. He soon after followed with the Ariel and 
Caledonia, the latter now commanded by Lieuten- 
ant Holdup Stevens. On the second of October 
he appeared off the mouth of the Thames, where 
he joined the vessels which he had detached in 
pursuit of the enemy's baggage ; they had been un- 
able to overtake the escaping vessels before they 
entered the river. 

On the morning of the third of October, our 

army having reached the neighbourhood of the 

Thames to the number of thirty-five hundred men, 

General Cass's brigade having been left at Sand- 

Cc 



302 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

wich, though he himself accompanied the com- 
mander-in-chief in the character of aiddecamp, 
Captain Perry now ordered Captain Elliott, with 
the Scorpion, Tigress, and Porcupine, to enter the 
river, they being the only vessels that could cross 
the bar at its mouth, and proceed up it with a large 
number of boats conveying the baggage of the 
army. The schooners held themselves in readi- 
ness to protect the passage of the army over the 
Thames or its tributaries, should opposition be of- 
fered. There were four streams crossing the route 
of the army in its pursuit of the enemy, which 
were deep and muddy, and not fordable except at 
points remote from their outlets into the Thames. 
All of these had bridges over them. Through the 
great neglect of the enemy, the bridge over the 
first stream, which the army reached on the night 
of the second of October, was found entire. On 
the morning of the third, the general, having push- 
ed forward at the head of Colonel R. M. Johnson's 
regiment of mounted Kentuckians, fortunately cap- 
tured a lieutenant of dragoons and eleven privates 
belonging to the enemy, who were engaged in de- 
stroying the second bridge. From the prisoners 
the general learned that the enemy had no certair 
information of his advance. The third bridge, 
having only been partially destroyed, probably to 
leave a passage for the dragoons who were to 
complete its destruction, when over, was soon re- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 303 

paired by our array, which passed over and en- 
camped four miles below Dalson's, at which point 
it had been supposed that the enemy would have 
been found intrenched and disposed to offer battle. 

In this neighbourhood the river Thames assumed 
a different character. Its channel grew narrow, 
with a more rapid current, and the banks steep, 
lofty, and wooded, so as to expose the decks of the 
vessels to the Indian sharp-shooters, while their 
artillery would be of no service should they at- 
tempt to accompany the army farther. The gen- 
eral agreed, on consultation with Captain Perry, 
that it would be inexpedient to carry the ves- 
sels higher, and that they should be left, with the 
boats and heavy baggage, at this point, with a 
guard of infantry to assist in their protection. 

By this time Perry had become so excited with 
the pursuit that he could not consent to remain in- 
active with his vessels ; leaving them, therefore, 
in charge of Captain Elliott, he tendered his 
services to General Harrison as an aiddecamp. 
They were gladly accepted ; and, by the kindness 
of a brother volunteer aid, Major John Chambers, 
who dismounted his servant in order to be able to 
offer him a horse, he was mounted, and ready to 
set forward with the army. The volunteers from 
the army who had served in the squadron, and 
passed alive and unwoundcd through the action 
of the tenth of September, had long since returned 



304 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

to the ranks, and spread among their comrades the 
most glowing accounts of Perry's heroism and hu- 
manity. Most of the soldiers, too, had seen some- 
thing of him for themselves in the course of the 
various transportations of the army to Put-in Bay, 
the Middle Sister, and to Maiden. He had been 
able, by his conciliatory treatment, to do away the 
prevailing idea of a constitutional dislike between 
the sailors and soldiers, and to keep them in a 
good humour with each other, notwithstanding 
their crowded condition while on board the ves- 
sels, being often so close together that they were 
unable to sit down. To his exertions and those 
of the general it was owing that such perfect har- 
mony existed between the two corps. On this ac- 
count, and owing to the admiration excited by 
Perry's recent victory, aided by his commanding 
person and the grace of his horsemanship, which 
was a subject of universal remark, he was raptu- 
rously received throughout the army, and followed 
by animating cheers. 

On the march Perry found abundant amusement 
in the odd ways and sayings of the Kentucky mi- 
litia. The exercise and rapid motion, after a con- 
finement of some weeks on shipboard, oppressed 
with responsibility and anxious cares, exhilarated 
him greatly. He entered with sportsmanlike zeal 
into the excitement of the rapid pursuit, and of 
the hourly increasing evidences that it would result 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 305 

in overtaking the enemy, and compelling him to 
fight or surrender; boats were taken and their 
crews made prisoners, and the hostile Indians 
made frequent efforts to check the advance of our 
troops, skirmishing with the videttes, and picking 
off our men across the river. A volley thus fired 
on one of our advanced parties attracted the atten- 
tion of Perry and Major Chambers, who rode at 
speed in the direction of the report, to see what it 
mio-ht be. A party of Indians had fired at one of 
our advanced guards, and, being concealed in the 
high grass, our men did not return the fire, but 
drew off from the bank of the river to avoid it. 
Having reached the point immediately opposite 
where the savages were lurking, Perry suddenly 
reined up, and exclaimed to his companion, " See 
that sneaking rascal crawling in the grass over 
there !" pointing, at the same time, to an Indian 
who was in the act of taking shelter behind a tree, 
from which he could fire securely. At this mo- 
ment a large Indian of the Shawnee tribe, in our 
service, and known as " Big Anderson," who had 
concealed himself below the river bank to get a 
shot, rose up suddenly, and, waving his hand au- 
thoritatively, cried out, " Go way, fool ! he shoot." 
Perry and his companion took the courteous hint 
and rode off with whole skins, laughing heartily. 
A march of eight miles from the encampment 
of the previous night brought the army to Chat- 
Cc2 



306 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

ham, where another tributary of the Thames was 
to be crossed. The bridge here was effectually 
destroyed, and a party of several hundred Indians 
were drawn up on the opposite bank to dispute the 
passage of our troops. General Harrison, believ- 
ing the whole British force to be at hand, drew up 
his army in order of battle, and brought up his ar- 
tillery to cover the party detailed to repair the 
bridge. The Indians, for it proved to be only a 
skirmishing party, soon after fell back, and our 
army passed over. Near the bridge, a house, 
stored with arms, was found in flames, which were 
fortunately extinguished. Farther on, a vessel, 
loaded with arms and ammunition, was found on 
fire. Four miles beyond, two other vessels were 
found on fire ; also a large distillery, filled with a 
large amount of- ordnance and other valuable 
stores. The flames had proceeded too far to save 
them. Two twenty-four pounders, with their car- 
riages, were, however, found, and a large quantity 
of shot and shells. Information was here obtained 
that the enemy w^ere still on the right bank of the 
river, and only a few miles ahead. It was there- 
fore probable that they would be overtaken and 
brought to action on the following day. The ar- 
my halted for the night, the picquets were station- 
ed, and soldiers and officers bivouacked together 
in the field, under the canopy of heaven, for there 
were no tents. Perry and his friend Major Cham- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 307 

bers, after making such a meal as the providence 
of the servant of the latter had reserved, shared 
the same bed of prairie grass, with their horses 
picqueted near them, in readiness to mount at a 
moment's warning. 

The pursuit was renewed at an early hour on 
the morning of the fifth. Their march now lay 
through a fine agricultural country, dotted with 
frequent and well-cultivated farms, surrounded by 
abundant orchards, of which the fruit was then 
ripe. The peaceful inhabitants, harassed and ter- 
rified by the passage of two armies, had abandon- 
ed their dwellings. The general took care that, 
at any rate, they should not suffer from their ene- 
mies, and rigorously forbade the slightest depreda- 
tions. In a short time after the renewal of the 
march, two gunboats and a number of batteaux, 
ascending the river with provisions and military 
stores, were overtaken and captured. At nine 
o'clock the army reached Arnold's ]VIills, at which 
point was the only ford within some distance at 
which the army could be conveniently crossed, so 
as to reach the right bank up which the enemy 
was retreating. Even here the water was too 
deep for the infantry to wade without great incon- 
venience. The mounted men hesitated to take 
the footmen behind them on their tired horses, and 
they were about to be left to wade or get over as 
they could, in a few canoes and batteaux which 



308 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

had been captured in the neighbourhood, when, 
as is stated by Major Chambers, Perry rode into 
the crowd at the ford, and, ordering a footman to 
jump up behind him, dashed into the stream, call- 
ing to the mounted men to take up the footmen 
and follow him. Some other officers of the staff 
who were near Perry immediately imitated his ex- 
ample ; and, in a very short time, the whole army 
was on the opposite shore, in a condition to pur- 
sue its march, without the inconvenience to the 
foot soldiers of wet clothing. 

Eight miles above the ford the army passed a 
farm where part of the British troops had bivou- 
acked on the previous night. From one of the 
enemy's wagoners overtaken at this point, infor- 
mation was obtained that General Proctor had pass- 
ed the previous night at the Moravian town, an 
Indian village under the patronage of the Mora- 
vians, about four miles farther up the Thames. It 
was also ascertained that Proctor, being now un- 
able to escape without fighting, had halted his 
army a mile and a half in front of the Moravian 
town, and disposed it in order of battle. In fact. 
Colonel R. M. Johnson, who rode in the van at 
the head of his mounted Kentuckians, soon after 
sent word to General Harrison that his progress 
was arrested by the enemy's army formed across 
our line of march. The general now drew up his 
troops in order of battle. The ground occupied 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 309 

by the Lneiiiy, and the whole space over which 
the road passed for nearly four miles below him, 
consisted of a narrow strip of land from two to 
three hundred yards wide, having the river on one 
side and an impenetrable, morass on the other. It 
was covered throughout with a heavy growth of 
timber, chiefly beechwood, but was almost entire- 
ly free from underbrush. Across this narrow neck 
of land Proctor had drawn up his army, to the 
number of about seventeen hundred men, having 
his right in the morass, covered by the whole body 
of his Indians, under Tecumseh, amounting to a 
thousand warriors, and his left on the river, sup- 
ported by six pieces of artillery. The position 
thus taken by General Proctor manifested great 
judgment, inasmuch as the morass on one flank, 
and the river on the other, effectually prevented 
them from being turned ; while our army, though 
more numerous, could only oppose a hne of equal 
extent. In fact, though the number of our troops 
in the field amounted to more than three thousand, 
only one hundred and twenty of which were regu- 
lars, our number actually engaged, on account of 
the want of space to form them, scarcely exceeded 
that of the enemy. 

General Harrison speedily formed his line of 
battle, assisted by his acting adjutant Captain But- 
ler, by General Cass, who had volunteered his ser- 
vices as an aid, and by Perry. It had been in- 



310 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

tended that the mounted riflemen from Kentucky 
should meet the Indians, with whom they were ac- 
customed to fight in their own pecuhar manner, and 
upon whom they were desirous to revenge the mas- 
sacre of so many of their brothers and relations at 
the Miami and the Raisin. The thickness of the 
wood and the swampiness of the ground on the en- 
emy's right, where lay the morass, would have ren- 
dered a body of horse unserviceable in that quarter, 
and subjected it to certain destruction. There was 
no time to dismount it, and, in the emergency of 
the moment, the general hastily conceived the idea 
of a sudden charge of this mounted corps upon the 
British centre, composed of infantry. Long famil- 
iarity with our western backwoodsmen had made 
General Harrison aware of the dexterity with 
which they ride through the forests in pursuit of 
game, without being in the least incommoded by 
their rifles. He reasoned, too, as it subsequently 
appeared judiciously, that the enemy would be un- 
prepared for so novel a charge. He immediately 
ordered the advance of the whole army ; the cen- 
tre and right were to break through the enemy's 
line, if possible, and overpower them at once; 
while the left was to await the attack of the In- 
dians, when in contact with them. The army was 
put in motion, and Colonel Johnson charged at 
the head of his mounted Kentuckians in gallant 
style. At the first fire received from the enemy's 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 3H 

line, the horses in front took fright and recoiled ; 
a second volley was poured in by the enemy, when, 
getting in motion, the mounted men broke through 
the opposite line, and in a moment decided the 
contest, dispersing the enemy, bearing down all 
resistance, and compelling him to surrender. At 
the same moment, the small party of regulars ad- 
vancing on the right, and some friendly Indians 
coming up under cover of the bank of the river, 
got possession of the enemy's artillery. Meantime, 
the hostile Indians on the left maintained the con- 
test from the morass, and under cover of the trees, 
in n more obstinate manner. For a moment they 
made an impression on our front line of infantry ; 
when Governor Shelby, who commanded at that 
point, and who, as General Harrison wTote, " at 
the age of sixty-six preserved all the vigour of 
youth, the ardent zeal which distinguished him in 
the revolutionary war, and the undaunted bravery 
which he manifested at King's Mountain," brought 
up a regiment which checked the onset of the In- 
dians. Colonel Johnson, too, having now borne 
down all opposition in front, wheeled with a part 
of his regiment, and, gaining the rear of the In- 
dians, caused them to retreat with great slaughter. 
In the course of this last onset Colonel Johnson 
came personally in contact with Tecumseh. Both 
the white and the Indian warriors were already 
bleeding from many wounds received earlier in 



312 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

the battle. Colonel Johnson, whose heroism had 
carried him wherever the danger was most immi- 
nent, had already received no fewer than five 
wounds. Tecumseh was in the act of launching 
his tomahawk with deadly aim at Colonel John- 
son, when the latter, quicker in his movements or 
better seconded by his weapon, brought him to 
the ground with a pistol-shot. Resistance was 
now at an end, and with it ceased the effusion of 
blood. There was no deliberate murder and 
scalping by our friendly Indians ; and the heroic 
Kentuckians, who had been stigmatized by the 
British as worse than savages, and many of 
whom mourned a relation or a friend cut off in 
cold blood at the Miami or the Raisin, responded 
nobly to the merciful caution of the general, " The 
revenge of a soldier cannot be gratified on a fallen 
enemy." 

The fruits of this victory were complete. While 
our loss in killed and wounded amounted to but 
twenty-nine, that of the enemy was ascertained to 
be at least thirty-four British, in addition to thirty- 
three Indians found dead on the field of battle. 
Six hundred and twenty-six regular troops, inclu- 
ding soldiers and officers, were made prisoners. 
Proctor, accompanied by forty dragoons and a few 
mounted Indians, escaped the hot pursuit which 
was kept up for him by the superior speed of his 
horses. An immense amount of mihtary stores 



OLIVER HAZARD VERRY. 313 

was either taken or destroyed by the enemy in 
his retreat. Among the most valuable of the 
spoils was a train of his brass cannons, three of 
which were revolutionary trophies, taken at York- 
town and Saratoga, and surrendered by General 
Hull at Detroit. Among the more precious fruits 
of the victory were the separation of the sav- 
age allies of England from her cause, and the re- 
lief of om- frontier frgm the horrors by which it had 
been so long desolated. 

Captain Perry acted an important part during 
the battle as aid of the general. In his official 
report. General Harrison took occasion to state, 
that his " gallant friend, Commodore Perry," had 
accompanied him at the head of his army, and as- 
sisted him in forming his line of battle ; " the ap- 
pearance of the brave commodore," added he, 
"cheered and animated every breast." Perry's 
was not merely an honorary office during the battle, 
but he strove to make it an active one j and his 
services were freely used by the general. A little 
incident, illustrative of his activity as an aidde- 
camp, and of his extraordinary skill as a horse- 
man, is mentioned by Major Chambers. This 
gentleman states that, from the moment he joined 
the army, his splendid horsemanship had attracted 
great attention. He rode a powerful and spirited 
black horse v^ith a white face, which served to 
distinguish the rider as far as he could be seen. 
Dd 



314 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

The horse became very much excited in the bat- 
tle, and on one occasion, when Perry had been 
despatched with an order from the general, and 
was passing from the right of the front line to the 
left wing of the army, he plunged into one of the 
deep sloughs which abounded in the direction of 
the swamp, and sunk nearly to the breast. In an 
instant Perry pressed his hands on the pommel of 
the saddle, and sprang over the horse's head to 
the dry ground. Relieved from the weight of 
his rider, the horse instantly extricated himself 
by a powerful effort, and, snorting as he trod the 
solid ground again, bounded forward at the speed 
he had held before the accident. Perry clutched 
the animal's mane as he released himself from the 
marsh, and vaulted into the saddle without in the 
slightest degree checking the speed of the beast, 
or touching bridle or stirrup until he was fairly 
seated. Major Chambers, who witnessed this feat, 
was astonished and pleased at it ; and the Ken- 
tuckians, who were approaching the enemy at 
a charging pace, cheered the brave sailor as he 
passed them. 

The private misery which attended the battle 
of the Thames, as that of Lake Erie, and doubt- 
less all other battles whether by sea or land, gave 
scope again for the indulgence of those benevo- 
lent and humane feelings which were ever upper- 
most in the breast of Perry. The Moravian town 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 315 

was a settlement of Christianized Indians, under 
the patronage of the missionaries of the excellent 
and benevolent Moravian sect. During the occu- 
pation of the village by our army, Perry was able 
to render essential services to the missionaries. 
Of the nature of these services we have no other 
means of judging than by the following interesting 
letter, found among his correspondence. It is da- 
ted at Bethlehem, and signed by Mr. John G. Cu- 
now, on behalf of the missionaries. 

" HoNOtJRED AND DeAR SiR, 

"The directors of the Society of the United 
Brethren, commonly called Moravians, residing at 
this place, have been informed by the Reverend 
Mr. Schnall, late one of our missionaries in Upper 
Canada, of the friendly offices and generous pro- 
tection which you have had the goodness to afford 
to our missionaries Avhen the settlement of oui* 
Christian Indians on Thames River was taken pos- 
session of by the army of the United States under 
General Harrison. 

" Impressed with the most lively sense of grat- 
itude for the numerous proofs of your benevolent 
disposition towards our missionaries when in dis- 
tress and danger, the directors beg leave to pre- 
sent to you their sincerest and most cordial ac- 
knowledgments. May the Lord, whose servants 
you have taken pleasure to protect, be your shield 



316 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

and your exceeding great reward, have you in his 
holy keeping, and bless you in life, in death, and 
throughout eternity." 

We are indebted for the following additional 
anecdote of Perry's amiable anxiety to allay the 
calamities of war, to the accidental discovery by 
Mr. Chambers of a good deed which was meant 
only for the eye of the All-seeing. From the of- 
ficial letter of General Harrison, it appears that this 
gentleman went in pursuit of General Proctor with 
a small party of officers and mounted riflemen 
amounting only to seven. During the pursuit. 
General Harrison states that they made many pris- 
oners. They also overtook a large straggling party 
of women and children, composing the families of 
the soldiers of the Forty-first Regiment, which had 
been long stationed at Fort Maiden. These had 
followed the army in its retreat up the Detroit and 
Thames, and had remained at the Moravian town 
within hearing of the battle. On seeing the gen- 
eral escaping at speed through the village with 
a handful of followers, they too fled in great 
alarm. At the head of this woe-worn group, 
who rent the air with sobs and lamentations as 
they struggled onward, was an interesting and 
modest young woman, with a pair of twin babies, 
one of which she carried on each hip. Mr. Cham- 
bers checked his horse, and reassured the affright- 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 317 

ed women, telling them they had nothing to fear 
either from the Americans or their friendly In- 
dians ; and succeeded in prevailing upon them to 
return to the village. He ordered a half-breed 
squaw, who was among the fugitives, to carry one 
of the twins of the young woman, and then turn- 
ed to continue the pursuit with his comrades. 

On the following morning. Major Chambers 
having duty at the Moravian town. Perry olFered 
to accompany him. On reaching the town, the 
first object that attracted his attention was the 
woman with twins standing in the doorway of one 
of the deserted Indian cabins. After some conver- 
sation with the woman, and some words of en- 
couragement as to the fate of her husband, and 
having requested her to remain where she was un- 
til his return. Chambers related to Perry the cir- 
cumstances under which he had found her the day 
before, struggling to save her little ones from the 
apprehended danger of being butchered by the 
American Indians, or, as she thought, more savage 
Kentuckians. The two aiddecamps separated in 
the village. When Major Chambers had de- 
spatched the business on which he had been sent, 
he went to look for the woman and twins, in or- 
der to make some benevolent provision lor their 
comfort. But they were no longer in the cabin. 
On his return towards the camp, he found them in 
a cart driven by a Canadian Frenchman. Upon 
Dd2 



318 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

accosting the woman, she at once told him that 
his companion had hired the man to take her 
home to Amherstburg, a distance of more than 
a hundred miles. " May God bless and prosper 
him," said she ; " he is the kindest and most gen- 
erous gentleman in the world, and has been an 
angel of mercy to me and my poor babes. See," 
said she, extending her hand, "he has not only 
paid this man to take us home, but has given me 
all this money to buy clothes for these dear little 
ones, now that their poor father is a prisoner and 
going to be sent away into the States." Mr. 
Chambers represents her gratitude at such unex- 
pected benevolence from an enemy as affecting 
her even to tears. In order that she might know 
to whom she was indebted, he mentioned to her 
that the gentleman who had befriended her was 
the American Commodore Perry ; and she seemed 
to wonder the more that the character which re- 
cent events had led her to associate with ideas 
only of terror, should have appeared to her in 
such an aspect of gentleness and mercy. 

While Perry was thus assisting to consummate 
on the land the triumph which he had so glorious- 
ly begun afloat, and delivering himself up, after 
victory, to the indulgence of his overflowing be- 
nevolence, the heart of Captain Elliott was a prey 
to envy and rancorous hatred of his magnanimous 
commander. We have seen that on the fourth of 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 3l|. 

October, the day preceding the battle of the 
Thames, by agreement between General Harri- 
son and Perry, the three gunboats, Scorpion, 
Tigress, and Porcupine, had been left with the 
boats containing the baggage and a guard of 
infantry, to await the farther movements of the 
army, at a point where the river, becoming nar- 
rower, and the banks steep and thickly wooded, 
rendered the advance of the vessels perilous by 
exposing their decks to the fire of the enemy, and 
preventing them from the use of their artillery. 
Captain Elliott had been left in the command of 
these vessels. Instead, however, of remaining at 
the post assigned him, fulfilling its duties, whether 
important or unimportant, like a faithful ofl^ccr, he 
continued to follow the army up the river, and, in 
fact, ascended to within three miles of the battle- 
ground, where he took possession of the vessels 
laden with valuable stores, which had been cap- 
tured shortly before by the army. Captain El- 
liott thereby not only committed the great military 
fault of disobeying the orders of his superior, 
without the occurrence of any circumstance not 
contemplated by that superior, or other assignable 
motive than caprice and waywardness, but he ex- 
posed his own vessels to destruction without the 
means of resistance, the baggage to possible cap- 
ture from a marauding band of Indians, and, in 
case of the defeat of the army, broke up those 



320 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

« 

precautionary measures of the commanding gener- 
al and commodore, by which the retiring army 
would have found, at a given point, a force sta- 
tioned to cover its retreat, and the means of re- 
embarcation. 

While engaged in this act of disobedience, the 
mind of Captain Elliott was possessed by notions 
of fancied wrongs from Perry, thus far studiously 
concealed from the latter, disappointed hopes for 
fame, and venomous efforts to disparage the too 
generous chief who had rescued him from repro- 
bation. During this cruise up the Thames, Cap- 
tain Elliott lived on board the Scorpion, com- 
manded by sailing-master, now commander, Ste- 
phen Champlin, from whom the foregoing infor- 
mation with regard to the removal of the vessels 
from the point where they were ordered to remain 
has been received. To this officer he commenced 
the wonted story of his complaints, coupled with 
abuse of Perry, and commendations of himself 
as the hero of the day. Still, in this very conver- 
sation, he stated that " in the action he was so far 
from the enemy that he only fired his twelve- 
pounders during two hours and' a half." The 
reason he assigned was, that " he had no signal 
from the commodore to change his situation."* 
He stated that " the officers and men of the Law- 

* This admission of Captain Elliott is substantially read- 
mitted in his biography, page 57. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 321 

rence, including Commodore Perry, were by no 
means entitled to prize-money ;" and still farther, 
that " the other officers and men of the squadron 
were even entitled to prize-money for her, she be- 
ing a recaptured vessel." Scorning this vain at- 
tempt to appeal to his cupidity and tamper with 
his loyalty, coming, as it did, from an officer so 
much his superior in rank, and having for its ob- 
ject to depreciate the fair and well-earned fame of 
their common commander, Mr. Champlin indig- 
nantly rejected the idea of disparaging the mo- 
mentous share which the Lawrence had in the 
\-ictory, because, through her abandonment by the 
Niagara, she had been compelled temporarily to 
strike her colours. Mr. Champlin replied with 
some warmth, that he knew not who was entitled 
to prize-money for the victory if the commodore 
was not. For himself, he would scorn to receive 
a cent if Commodore Perry was not a sharer. 
Irritated by this manly opposition, Captain Elliott 
gave way to extreme irritation, and unwarily ex- 
pressed a sentiment which may serve as a clew to 
the mystery of his whole conduct during the bat- 
tle. After complaining of the commodore's in- 
justice to him in his account of the battle, he told 
Mr. Champlin that " he only regretted that he had 
not sacrificed the fleet when it was in his power 
to have done so," 

Thus at one time we find Captain Elliott com- 



322 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

plaining to Mr. Champlin " that in the action he 
was so far from the enemy that he only fired his 
twelve-pounders during two hours and a half," 
and assigning as a reason for this " that he had 
no signal from the commodore to change his sta- 
tion," when the commodore had assigned him a 
station alongside the Queen Charlotte, told him 
that his object was close action, and shown him 
the way into it with the Lawrence ; at another, 
claiming credit for having altered the order of 
battle on his own responsibility, and justifying 
himself on the grounds of his " being the second 
in command, the only captain in the squadron ex- 
cept Commodore Perry, and commanding a ship 
of equal force with the flag-ship," and therefore 
" the only officer that would venture upon such an 
expedient."* These opinions may aid in explain- 
ing Captain Elliott's motives of action in his con- 
nexion with Perry. Happily, they are such opin- 
ions as are not likely to find favour in the navy. 
Few right-minded officers will deny, that the fact 
of Captain Elliott's being the second in command, 
instead of conferring immunity for disobedience, 
imposed the duty of being first to set an example 
of subordination. 

* Biographical Notice of Commodore J. D. Elliott, page 184. 



END OF VOL. I. 



LRBN?7 



